576 THE BIRDS OF MANITOBA THOMPSON. 



me once again among the birds of my boyhood — those of Canada, my 

 home — and also for the first time enabled me to hear the song which 

 has given me such unalloyed delight. 



It was springtime in Manitoba; the season of blizzards was nearly 

 past, but the prairies were still buried deeply out of sight, and the 

 north wind was yet howling over the plains. We were looking for 

 signs of spring, but I was not prepared to hear, from the very bosom 

 of a gale, a loud, melodious chant, short and sweet oh — how sweet alter 

 the long silent months of winter! "There's the lark!" cried my 

 more experienced brother. Yes, it was the lark, the herald and king 

 of the host of singers that were now at length coming home again from 

 the south. As I knew the Meadow Lark of eastern America, and was 

 acquainted with its short and rather ordinary song, the ascription of 

 such a burst of melody to a Meadow Lark seemed rather surprising; 

 but before that summer was over I had found out that the prairie bird 

 is very widely different in voice, powers, habits and all but appearance 

 from his near kinsman in the east. 



On the day after the initial spring greeting the weather was pleas- 

 anter; other larks were to be seen, and an occasional warble was heard. 

 The next day at dawn scores of larks had appeared, and as if by con- 

 cert, all together burst into a splendid explosion of song, pouring out 

 their rich, strong voices from every little height and perch, singing 

 with all their might. Standing on a clod, running on the ground, or 

 flying high in the air, they sing and must sing aloud for the spring. 

 The dawn, the noon, the evening passed, and still they sang; not till 

 night came on and black darkness covered the plain, did they for a 

 while cease ; but the rising of the yellow moon above the eastern fringe 

 of trees was loudly hailed by many of the joyous birds, and greeted 

 with a renewal of their morning bursts of song. 



All through that spring and summer 1 had ample opportunities of 

 hearing and studying the music of the delightful Prairie Lark. Nor 

 did I forget to juake what record I could of his varied chants, that I 

 might mure accurately describe them afterward. Some of them I give 

 in musical notation, though indeed the bird does not sing strictly in the 

 music of our scale, nor does there usually appear to be any true recog- 

 nition of time. 



The first, the short warble of spring-time, is nearly thus- 



^^ ^^^ 



Varied and replaced by another: 



