yOl i907' IV ] Cameron, Birds of Custer & Dawson Counties, Mont. 399 



six short (two triplets). The birds' varied motives could be very easily- 

 rendered by musical notation, which I presume has already been done. 

 Meadowlarks also sing on the wing, during rain and snowstorms and at 

 night. I have seen three rival males singing against each other on the 

 ground. Of the Western Meadowlark's song Dr. J. A. Allen 1 has written: 

 " It differs from that of the Meadowlark in the Eastern States in the notes 

 being louder and wilder, and at the same time more liquid, mellower, and 

 far sweeter. They have a pensiveness and a general character remarkably 

 in harmony with the half-dreary wildness of the primitive prairie, as though 

 the bird had received from its surroundings their peculiar impress; while 

 if less loud their songs would hardly reach their mates above the strong 

 winds that almost constantly sweep over the prairies in the hot months." 



Meadowlarks make their nests entirely of grass under the sage-brush 

 or in tussocks of grass, and roof them over with the same material. They 

 have either five, six, or seven eggs, beginning to lay about May 20, and 

 sometimes rear two broods. On June 30, 1906, I noticed a bird sitting 

 in a flowering cactus patch winch was the prettiest nest I have seen. By 

 the middle of June the young Meadowlarks can fly. In these the yellow 

 is quite pale, but there is not much difference between the adult male and 

 female save that the yellow at edge of wing is paler in the latter. Early 

 in September the Meadowlarks collect in flocks on the open prairie when 

 I have counted as many as fifty together. At my ranch in Dawson County, 

 Meadowlarks are very fond of bathing in the overflow of the troughs with 

 the other birds, and become the wettest of any. Several times individuals 

 were observed which could scarcely take wing, and on August 14, 1904, 

 my wife saw a Meadowlark incapable of flight after its bath. 



Meadowlarks have many enemies, more especially Golden Eagles, 

 Prairie Falcons, Marsh Hawks, and Red-tailed Hawks. A pair of the 

 latter, which nested for several years, close to my ranch in Custer County, 

 fed their young almost entirely upon these birds. Whereas heaps of 

 Meadowlark feathers lay on a log near the tree, other remains were scarcely 

 ever found, although the hawks did occasionally procure snakes and 

 cotton-tail rabbits. 



Numerous Meadowlarks reared their young in the vicinity of the buz- 

 zards' haunt, and this fact, conjoined to the unmistakable evidence that 

 the Meadowlarks formed the staple bill of fare, had probably something 

 to do with the site chosen for the nest. 



On June 15, 1898, I surprised the female hawk just after she had seized a 

 newly flown Meadowlark which was immediately dropped. Mr. M. M. 

 Archdale has seen a female Marsh Hawk standing by a Meadowlark's nest 

 and devouring the young birds. I have several times found Meadowlarks 

 impaled, or hanging, on a barbed wire fence, and a few perish from the 

 buffeting of spring storms. Mr. Dan Bowman took one of these storm- 

 tossed birds into his house where it soon recovered, and, becoming ex- 



1 As quoted by Dr. Coues in 'Birds of the Northwest,' p. 191, 1874. 



