A WALK IN WINTER. 211 



homes of their remote ancestors when winter kindly re- 

 stores it to its old-time condition. 



To return to these larks before me : there were fully 

 a hundred of them, and they ran with wonderful speed 

 over the snow, sometimes carrying their heads well up, 

 and then thrusting them eye-deep into the snow. I saw 

 all about me the oblique holes they had thus made, and I 

 judged that it must have been done in picking up grass- 

 seeds that the winds had scattered, and in catching a 

 small red spider that w^as abundant near the top of the 

 snow, for both of which they were evidently in search. 

 There was also some insect-life abroad minute black 

 flies, that eluded my efforts at capture, but which may 

 have been caught up by the quick-motioned larks. 



Beyond me, the half -hidden worm-fence had protected 

 in its corners a long hedge of tall weeds, and these I 

 found still retained a large portion of their seeds in the 

 seed-vessels. These weeds the larks did not approach. 

 Indeed, they are not adapted to climbing at all, and any 

 food to be accessible to them must be upon the ground. 



Again, during the whole time that these larks re- 

 mained in view, I failed to detect any leader among them. 

 I thought that, in every instance of their taking flight, 

 I heard a clear, bell-like chirp, but there was nothing to 

 indicate that this alarm came from one and the same bird. 

 However this may be, no sooner is the note heard 

 than every bird rose instantly, and, although much scat- 

 tered at the time, they closed their ranks promptly, and 

 moved with a wavy motion, almost as a single object. I 

 likened it to a sheet of paper carried gently along by the 

 wind. With the same unity of purpose they alighted ; 

 no one lark touched the snow a second in advance of its 

 fellows. But no sooner were they again on foot than 

 they were wholly indifferent to each other, and went 



