THE WESTERN MEADOWLARK. 67 



of the Shore-birds. Or, again, she may cling to her charge in desperation 

 hoping against iiope till the last possible moment and taking chances of final 

 mishap. In this way a friend of mine once discovered a brooding Meadow- 

 lark imprisoned underneath his boot — fortunately witlmut danxage for she 

 occupied the deep depression of a cow-track. 



To further concealment the grass-lined depression in which the .Meadow- 

 lark places her four or five si)eckled eggs is almost inxariably over-arched 

 with dried grasses. This renders the eggs practically invisible from above, 

 and especially if the nest is placed in thick grass or rank herbage, as is 

 customary. Touching instances of blind devotion to this arch tradition were, 

 however, afforded by a sheep-swept pasture near Adrian. Here the salt-grass 

 was crcjpped close and the very sage was gnawed to stubs. But the Meadow- 

 larks, true to custom, had imported long, dried grasses with which tO' over- 

 arch their nests. .'\s a result one had only to- look for knobs rm the landscape. 

 By eye alone we located six of these pathetic landmarks in the course of a 

 half-hour's stroll. 



One brood is usually brought off by May ist and another by the middle 

 of June. Altho Meadowlarks are classed as altricial. i. e. having young help- 

 less when hatched and which require to be nurtured in the nest, the young 

 Meadowlarks are actually very precocious and scatter from the nest four or 

 five days after hatching, even before they are able to fairly stand erect. This 

 arrangement lessens the chances of wholesale destruction but it would ajjpear 

 to complicate the problem from the parental standpoint. How would you, 

 for instance, like to tend five babies, each in a separate thicket in a trackless 

 forest, and that haunted by cougars, and lynxes, and bf)a-constrictors and 

 things ? 



We cannot afford to be indifferent S])ectators to this early struggle for 

 existence, for it is difficult to- overestimate the economic value of the Meadow- 

 lark. The bird is by choice almost exclusively insectivorous. If. however, 

 when hard pressed, he does take toll of the fallen wheat or alfalfa seed, he 

 is as easily justifiable as is the hired man who consumes the farmer's biscuits 

 that he may have the strength to wield the hoe against the farmer's weeds. 

 Being provided with a long and sensitive bill, the Meadowlark not only 

 gleans its insect prey from the surface of the ground, but works among the 

 grass roots, and actually probes the earth in its search for wire- and cut- 

 worms, those most dreaded pests. Besides devouring injurious grubs and 

 insects of many kinds, the Lark has a great fondness for grasshoppers, sub- 

 sisting almost entirely upon these in the season of their greatest abundance. 

 In the matter of grasshopper consumption alone Meadowlarks of average 

 distribution, are estimated by no less an authority than Professor Beal. to 

 be worth al)out twenty-four dollars per month, per township, in saving the 

 hay crop. To the individual farmer this may seem a small matter, but in 



