WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 207 
to muster courage sufficient to come down and defend 
their little ones. 
The young larks leave the nest usually on the ninth 
day after hatching, although one brood certainly were 
gone on the fourth day, and one remained until the 
tenth. They are beautiful babies, of soft mottled light 
and dark brown and cream buffy ; they are fed by both 
parents until fairly well grown, when the male takes 
entire charge, and the female scratches out another nest 
in the stubbly grass or sand. The education of the 
family thus depends entirely on the father bird, who 
may be found any sunny afternoon, initiating them into 
the mysteries of a dust bath, or standing beside them 
under a sagebush, panting in the terrible heat that 
beats down from the cloudless sky and up from the 
blistering sand. In the early morning you can watch 
them feeding on the insects and seeds on the ground. 
A little later in the season, if you are an early riser, you 
may witness their first singing lesson. With wide-eyed 
amazement and dawning envy they have watched their 
father rise twittering through the clear air ; and, one by 
one, they learn to do it too. The first I ever saw start 
gave a little bound, uttered a weak “tweet, tweet,” 
and fluttered up about ten feet only to sink back again. 
But he was full of triumph and, unable to contain him- 
self any longer, soon attempted a second flight. The 
method is very like that of the bobolink, though the 
result is far less brilliant. Yet so full of irrepressible 
joy in living is the Horned Lark that as you listen you 
are glad, like him, just to be alive. 
