. 146 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [10:4— April, 1914 



meadowlark, so here, flushing the bird is the likeliest clew to the 

 whereabouts of the nest. At any rate, you will find the nest to 

 be well concealed in the long grasses, and well covered over vnth, 

 the rank growth. For the size of the bird the nest is very large 

 in order to accommodate the great number of eggs — from ten to 

 fifteen. The eggs are white, about an inch in diameter. The 

 young are able to run about as soon as hatched. The mother 

 quail with her large brood of young ones must be a formidable 

 foe of the insect hoards abounding at this season of the year. 



It would be tmfair to omit from our list the familiar song sparrow. 

 A most cheering bird. The fact that it is a common bird only 

 adds to the possibility of your finding the nest. Like the others 

 we have mentioned, it nests usually on the ground. Occasion- 

 ally a nest is found a short distance above it in a shrub or clump 

 of stout grasses. Look for them along the banks of a stream, 

 well up among the grasses. Sometimes you will find them in the 

 margin of .the woodland, or at least in the open places therein. 

 The nest is an open one, though it may be in part obscured by 

 overhanging leaves or branches. It is placed on the ground, in 

 a slight depression which is lined with blades of grass and bits of 

 leaves, and occasionally finer grasses and horsehair are added as a 

 final touch of fine workmanship. The eggs are whitish with 

 heavy markings of brown, so that they are not at all conspicuous 

 as they lie in the grass-lined nest. Four or five is the usual num- 

 ber, although six or seven are sometimes found. I recall once 

 having found a nest under a coil of barbed wire in the margin of 

 a woods. Here was excellent protection surely! In spite of it, 

 however, somebody, or something, destroyed the eggs and the 

 venture of the birds was consequently a failure. The cowbird is 

 fond of parasitizing these nests with her despicable kind, and it is 

 worthy of note that the eggs of the two species look quite alike. 

 That of the cowbird is slightly larger than the song sparrow's, 

 and the markings are a darker shade of brown. A close compari- 

 son will enable you to easily recognize the two. It may not be 

 out of place to remark that it is good ethics to remove and destroy 

 the cowbird eggs from the nest. Its presence there will mean, 

 otherwise, the loss of the lives of the legitimate nestlings, all of 

 which are quite likely to be crowded out of the nest by the vorac- 

 ious and rapidly growing parasite. 



