CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE 39% 
of the male, with his conspicuous white wing-patches 
and occasional white outlines on the tail, renders him a 
striking object as he shoots up from the grass like a 
rocket and whistles his merry song. This he does in 
true bobolink fashion, never pausing to catch his breath 
until, sliding downward through the air, he alights 
within twenty feet of his starting point and finishes the 
trilling begun in midair. Over and over, all day long, 
during the nesting time, he repeats this double aérial 
feat of flight and song. It is as if a sudden explosion of 
joy within him sent him skyward on wings of music. Its 
force spent, he flutters down to the quiet gladness of 
earth once more and soliloquizes sweetly on the wonder 
of it, as he swings on a low perch. 
Like the bobolink, too, he changes his summer plu- 
mage to a less striking suit of brown like that of his mate, 
before he starts on his fall trip to the plateaus of Mexico. 
His nest is deftly hidden in the weed clumps of a moun- 
tain meadow, and neither he nor the demure little mother 
bird will reveal its whereabouts. In this trait also he 
resembles the bobolink, for, instead of rising from the 
nest as the meadowlarks and some sparrows are apt to 
do, the Lark Bunting slips through the weeds for some 
distance before reaching her grass-lined cradle. 
The baby Buntings are fed exclusively upon insect 
diet as long as they remain in the nest, and for some 
time after leaving it. They hide in the cover of the 
grass and weeds until able to fly well, and at night they 
cuddle into the thick underbrush, like little quail, with 
both parents on guard. Even after the first real flight it 
