268 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



Where the natural streams and irrigating ditches do 

 not reach the soil of the park it is as dry and parched 

 as the plains and mesas. In fact, the park is only a 

 smaller and higher edition of the plains, the character 

 of the soil and the topography of the land in both 

 regions being identical. Never in the wet, fresh 

 meadows, whether of plain or park, only on the arid 

 slopes and hillocks, will you find the desert horned larks, 

 which are certainly true to their literary cognomen, if 

 ever birds were. How they revel in the desert ! How 

 scrupulously they draw the line on the moist and emer- 

 ald areas ! Surely there are " many birds of many 

 kinds," and one might appropriately add, " of many 

 minds," as well ; for, while the blackbirds and savanna 

 sparrows eschew the desert, the horned larks show the 

 same dislike for the meadow. In shallow pits dug by 

 themselves amid the sparse buffalo grass, the larks set 

 their nests. The young had already left their nurse- 

 ries at the time of my visit to the park, but were still 

 receiving their rations from the beaks of their elders. 

 On a level spot an adult male with an uncommonly 

 strong voice for this species was hopping about on the 

 ground and reciting his canticles. Seeing I was a 

 stranger and evidently interested in all sorts of avian 

 exploits, he decided to give an exhibition of what might 

 be called sky-soloing, as well as dirigible ballooning. 

 Starting up obliquely from the ground, he continued to 



