154 LARK FINCH. 
York city. It is, however, a permanent resident through- 
out its range, and to one who associates it with magnolias 
and yellow jessamine it seems strangely out of place amid 
snowy surroundings. 
The Cardinal builds its nest about four feet from the 
ground in thickets, laying three or four eggs, which are 
white or bluish white, speckled and spotted with grayish 
or reddish brown. 
In the Mississippi Valley and westward there are sev- 
eral members of this family who are rarely found east 
Lark Finch, of the Alleghanies. Prominent among 
Chondestes them is the Lark Finch, a handsome 
grammaces. bird, about six and a quarter inches 
long, with ear-coverts and sides of the crown chestnut, — 
the back grayish brown streaked with black, the outer 
tail-feathers tipped with white, and the under parts 
white, with a single black spot in the center of the © 
breast. 
This is a migratory bird, arriving in southern Illinois 
about the middle of April and remaining until September 
or October. Mr. Ridgway, in his Birds of Illinois, says 
that its favorite resorts are “fertile prairies and meadows 
adjoining strips or groves of timber. In Illinois it evinces 
a special fondness for cornfields, in which it builds its 
nest at the foot of the stalks, while the male sings from 
the fence or the top of a small tree by the roadside.” 
Its song, the same writer continues, is “composed of 
a series of chants, each syllable rich, loud, and clear, in- 
terspersed with emotional trills. At the beginning the 
song reminds one somewhat of that of the Indigo-bird 
(Passerina cyanea), but the notes are louder and more 
metallic, and their delivery more vigorous. Though 
seemingly hurried, it is one continuous gush of sprightly 
music ; now gay, now melodious, and then tender beyond 
description—the very expression of emotion.” 
