230 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



likely to be safe until they were well able to take care 

 of themselves. 



The mother did not happen to be at home, so I stationed 

 myself some fifty or seventy-five yards away, began plait- 

 ing chains of white clover blossoms, and awaited her re- 

 turn. After half an hour or so I noticed a meadow lark 

 flying by, but it did not occur to me that this nest be- 

 longed to her. True, I had never seen a meadow lark's 

 nest, but I had known larks all my life, and she acted so 

 naturally that it was not suggested to me that this bird 

 was trying to learn whether I had found the nest and 

 whether it was safe to return. She alighted in the grass 

 near by and seemed to busy herself looking for worms. In 

 five or ten minutes she flew by again and alighted on the 

 other side. Again in a few minutes she came by, each 

 time getting nearer the nest. 



Presently she gained a little more courage, alighted 

 within ten or fifteen feet of the nest, and began pecking 

 about here and there in the most unconcerned way pos- 

 sible. When she felt sure no one would notice it, she 

 ducked her head as low as she could and made directly 

 for the tunnel and slipped in to the nest. Then the secret 

 was out. It was a meadow lark's nest ; the first I had seen 

 and for that matter the most cleverly hidden of any nest 

 I had known, excepting perhaps that of the humming bird. 

 Meadow larks always build their nest in the grass, but 

 they do not always take the trouble to conceal it as this 

 one had done. In fact, it is seldom that I have found a 

 meadow lark's nest hidden away in a tunnel where curious 

 eyes could not find it. 



Lady Lark was a careful, painstaking housekeeper, never 

 allowing the least bit of trash or dirt anywhere about 



