Kinglet, Ruby-Crowned 



The May morning when first I heard this kinglet's song 

 is among the most memorable of my early ornithological 



experiences The song was mellow and flute-like, 



and loud enough to be heard several hundred yards; an 

 intricate warble past imitation or description, and rendered 

 so admirably that I never hear it now without an impulse 

 to applaud. The bird is so small, the song so rich and 

 full, that one is reminded of a chorister with the voice 

 of an adult soprano. To extend the comparison, one 

 watches this gifted but unconscious musician flitting about 

 the trees with somewhat the feeling that one observes 

 the choir-boy doffing his surplice and joining his com- 

 rades for a game of tag. 



CHAPMAN. Handbook of Birds. 21 



He is fairly to be esteemed a musical prodigy. 



TORREY. Every Day Birds. 18 



LARK, HORNED 



In America, the horned larks are alone in the family 

 of which the famous skylark is one of the European mem- 

 bers. While their song is wholly unpretentious, it is 

 quaint and attractive, and is often given as the bird springs 

 from the ground toward the sky, quite in the manner 

 of the skylark. 



FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. Birds of Village and Field. 1 



In Greenland and Labrador, its summer home, it is a 

 conspicuously handsome bird with its pinkish-gray and 

 chocolate feathers, that have greatly faded into dull-browns 

 when we see them in the late autumn. 



NELTJE BLANCHAN. Bird Neighbors. 23 



88 



