THE GRASSHOPPER-MIMIC 



August 4th 



naturalist, Kirby, in describing the 

 bird known as the " grasshopper- lark" 

 (Alauda trivialis}, claims that it has a 

 peculiar note which closely imitates the 

 songs of the grasshoppers or locusts upon which it 

 feeds ; the inference being that this vocal strain may 

 be designed by the bird either as a decoy to the insect, 

 or as a means of approaching it without exciting suspi- 

 cion. This inference is commonly considered some- 

 what gratuitous, even though no better reason be as- 

 signed for the mimic song. 



But we have in our own August fields a grasshopper- 

 mimic which leaves Kirby's bird far behind. So good 

 a mimic, indeed, that little is known of its song except 

 as it is credited to the common meadow grasshopper or 



