A NOTABLE QUARTETTE 291 



Scarcely daring to breathe, I followed a direct course 

 to the weed-clump from which she had risen. And 

 there was a nest, sure enough my first lark bunting's 

 set in a shallow pit of the ground, prettily concealed 

 and partly roofed over by the flat and spreading weed- 

 stalk. Four half-fledged youngsters lay panting in the 

 little cradle, the day being very warm. I lifted one of 

 them from the nest, and held it in my hand for a 

 minute or two, and even touched it with my lips, 

 my first view of lark-bunting babies being something of 

 an event I had almost said an epoch in my experi- 

 ence. Replacing the youngster in its crib, I stepped back 

 a short distance and watched the mother bird returning 

 with another mouthful of " goodies," and feeding her 

 bantlings four. She was not very shy, and simply 

 uttered a fine chirp when I went too close to her nest- 

 lings, while her gallant consort did not even chirp, but 

 tried to divert my attention by repeatedly curveting in 

 the air and singing his choicest measures. This was 

 the only bunting's nest I found, although I made 

 long and diligent search for others, as you may well 

 believe when I state that a half day was spent in gath- 

 ering the facts recorded in the last two paragraphs. 



In the afternoon I watched a female in another field 

 for a long time, but she was too wary to betray her 

 secret. In this case the male, instead of beguiling 

 me with song, flitted about and mingled his fine chirps 



