120 



SUBKINGDOM VERTEBRATA. 



Fig. 197. 



Eremophlla cornuta, Shore Lark. 



insects and soft fruit, it peculiarly adapts it to obtain food 



from the seed of pine and 

 fir cones.* 



Alaudidse. The Larks 

 are distinguished by long 

 and nearly, straight hind 

 claws. The Shore Lark is 

 the only representative in- 

 digenous to North America, 

 but the most noted is the 

 European Skylark, now par- 

 tially domesticated in the 

 United States. It rises with 



quivering wings almost perpendicularly, singing the while, 

 until it passes out of sight, though not out of hearing; and 

 then, closing its wings, drops headlong down into the 

 meadow again, in a very ecstacy of song. 



Icteridae. The Bobolink is one 

 of the most beneficial or destructive 

 of birds, according to the season 

 of the year and the locality. In its 

 spring migrations, it is the pest of 

 the Southern wheat-fields ; and in its 

 autumnal flight, of the rice planta- 

 tions. It renders, however, a re- 

 deeming service in devouring cotton- 

 worm larvae, and in its breeding- 

 places it is purely insectivorous. The 

 female conceals her nest on the 

 ground among the standing grass by 

 alighting or rising a distance from it.f 



Fig. 198. 



Dolichfmyx oryziv&rus, 

 Bobolink, or Rice-bird. \. 



* These seeds are concealed beneath hard scales. To secure them the bird, cling- 

 ing to the slender twig with one foot, grasps the cone with the other; then inserting 

 its bill between the scales, by drawing the lower mandible sideways, pries them 

 apart, when the tongue, which is furnished with a peculiar horny scoop, darts into 

 the opening, dislodges the seed and carries it to the mouth. 



t The grotesque, though charming song of the Bobolink is a curious medley of 

 jingling, incomprehensible notes, uttered with a volubility and earnestness that bor- 

 ders upon the ludicrous, especially when thirty or forty begin, one after another, and 



