A SWEET MOUNTAIN SINGER. 35 



conclusion. The performance was eccentric. 

 It began with a soft warble, apparently for his 

 sole entertainment, then suddenly, as if over- 

 whelmed by memory of wrongs received or of 

 punishment deserved, he interrupted his tender 

 melody with a loud, incisive " Whip-for-her ! " 

 in a totally different manner. His nearness, 

 however, solved the mystery; the ring of the 

 meadow-lark was in his tones, and I knew him 

 at once. I had not suspected his identity, for 

 the Western bird does not take much trouble 

 to keep out of sight, and, moreover, his song is 

 rarely less than six or eight notes in length. 



Another unique singer of the highlands is the 

 horned lark. One morning in June a lively 

 carriage party passing along the mountain side, 

 on a road so bare and bleak that it seemed no- 

 thing could live there, was startled by a small 

 gray bird, who suddenly dashed out of the sand 

 beside the wheels, ran across the path, and flew 

 to a fence on the other side. Undisturbed, per- 

 haps even stimulated, by the clatter of two horses 

 and a rattling mountain wagon, undaunted by 

 the laughing and talking load, the little creature 

 at once burst into song, so loud as to be heard 

 above the noisy procession, and so sweet that it 

 silenced every tongue. 



" How exquisite ! What is it ? " we asked 

 each other, at the end of the little aria. 



