44 Birds of Oregon and Washington 



bird, in the course of twenty minutes, and in the 

 suburbs of Tacoma, as many others, in the same 

 time, from a Meadowlark there. The song goes 

 from a clear, flute-like whistle, through distinct 

 and varied melodies, to a brilliant roulade the 

 latter, as I have before indicated, being executed 

 upon the wing. 



Ernest Seton-Thompson says of the Meadow- 

 lark, in his " Birds of Manitoba," " In richness 

 of voice and modulation it equals or excels both 

 Wood Thrush and Nightingale, and in the beauty 

 of its articulation it has no superior in the whole 

 world of feathered choristers with which I am 

 acquainted." This is high praise, and yet I sus- 

 pect that he could not have heard the variety of 

 song in that part of the continent which the 

 same bird (as classified by ornithologists) gives 

 on this coast. At all events, the Meadowlarks 

 of Minnesota, when I heard them, though beau- 

 tiful, as Mr. Seton-Thompson describes them, as 

 far as they went, failed to attract me by the 

 variety of music that I instantly noticed here. 



But his estimation of the quality, modulation 

 and articulation of the song of the bird that he 

 heard, is not overdone, unless, perhaps, we ought, 



