Nesting Time. 



laying her delicate white eggs dotted 

 with reddish brown; the black pewee 

 places hers under the eaves of the 

 veranda, building it of moss and straw 

 plastered with mud, and laying four or 

 five white eggs. The valley-quail has 

 laid her numerous buff, brown spotted 

 eggs upon the ground, under a shelter- 

 ing bush, and in due course of time will 

 be leading her little chicks afield, watch- 

 ing with anxious solicitude for every 

 sign of the approach of danger. 



During the month of May the height 

 of the breeding season is reached. The 

 western meadow-lark is nesting now, 

 although I suspect it is her second brood, 

 now first discovered in cutting the grain. 

 The lazuli-bunting lays her pale bluish 

 eggs during the early days of May, 

 building a rather clumsy nest of grasses 

 in some low bush. About this same 

 time the barn and cliff swallows are also 

 plastering their nests under the eaves of 

 barns. Both species use mud for the 

 outside of their homes, with straw and 



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