284 MousLEY, Breeding of the Prairie Horned Lark. [j^iy 



from my house, and close to the Hatley cemetery, and was of similar 

 construction to the other two, except that the paving consisted of 

 only five pieces of cow-chip and two of lichen, and the lining in 

 addition to the down and flower heads of the pearly everlasting 

 consisted of four little pieces of paper, two small thistle heads, and 

 some thistle down. It was in a hole alongside a stone, the latter 

 forming the back or north side of the nest, the paving being on 

 the south side as in the case of the other two. The fourth and last 

 nest was found on April 30 and contained three young birds partly 

 fledged. It differed in many ways from the other three, being 

 situated in a low damp meadow, instead of a high and dry one 

 (as in the case of the others), the bird in this matter apparently 

 using very little judgment, and yet again as regards the paving it 

 seemed to have displayed that marvelous instinct which birds 

 seem at times to be endowed with, for instead of using cow-chips 

 as a paving, which in such a wet spongy place would have been of 

 little good, it resorted to the use of very thin and flat stones ranging 

 in size from | X f inches to 1 X f inches, of which there were thirty. 

 The nest was nine inches from a good sized stone and forty yards 

 from the main road to Stanstead; and I shall always remember 

 the circumstances under which I came to find it, in as much as it 

 disproves the fact so positively asserted in all the best text books 

 that this species never perches in trees. It was while returning 

 from Hatley somewhat late in the afternoon of April 29 on the above 

 mentioned road, that a bird got up some distance ahead of me, and 

 flew into a good sized ash tree which stood at the side of the road. 

 As it arose I felt sure it was a Prairie Horned Lark, but when it 

 perched in the tree, I almost dismissed the thought from my mind, 

 for had I not read that these birds never made use of trees to perch 

 on? However, as the bird allowed me to get opposite the tree and 

 having a pair of field glasses, I took a careful look at it, and sure 

 enough it turned out to be a male Prairie Horned Lark with food 

 in its beak, which pointed to the fact that a nest of young was 

 probably not far ofP, so I concealed myself, but it was rather a long 

 time l)efore the bird left the tree and alighted on a large boulder in 

 the field, from which it entered the grass. After allowing a short 

 interval to elapse I advanced, when the bird flew up, but I failed to 

 .discover any traces of a nest or young birds. As it was now getting 



