THE OOLOGIST. 



91 



bestowing upon his mate melodious as- 

 surances of fidelity and. love. Then a 

 Goldfinch, in undulating flight, festoons 

 the other with its plaintive song. Emul- 

 ous and with joy-glowing breast, the 

 lark spiings from his grassy covert to 

 wing his brief, uncertain course; as he 

 rises on fluttering pinions he glances at 

 every side, his throat swells with blithe- 

 some song, the musical accents resound 

 throughout the meadow: his flageoletic 

 song ceases, a short sail and a few flut- 

 ters terminates his flight. 



From morass, thicket and woodland 

 come the voices of Warblers, Wrens 

 and Thrushes, joined in harmonious 

 union, loud rings the concert of appro- 

 bation; the Mockingbird, accompaning 

 his strains with aerial evolutions, leads 

 the throng; the rhapsody of the Thrash- 

 er, the whistle of the Wren-tit, even 

 the sad pc-wee of the Phoebe bird help 

 swell the chorus. A swoop and the 

 tierce shriek of a hawk silences all. 



The great interior valleys of Califor- 

 nia, the valleys of the Sacramento and 

 San Joaquin, which combined extend 

 over four hundred miles in length and 

 from forty to sixty miles in width, seem 

 to be the natural home of the Western 

 Meadow Lark. I can conceive of no 

 place more thickly populated with these 

 merry denizens of the fields than that 

 part of the San Joaquin situated in the 

 western part of Tulare county known 

 as Lucerne Vale, a district of about 

 four hundred square miles. Here are 

 extensive wheat fields; the monotony of 

 the scene is broken by farm houses, 

 here and there, surrounded with poplar 

 trees and orchards, and also by darker 

 hued fields of Alfalfa, in early summer 

 the color of which is in marked contrast 

 to the ripened grain. Lines of droop- 

 ing willows, which fringe the banks of 

 capacious irrigation canals, weave their 

 way through these fertile plains and 

 can be traced for miles until they b& 

 come as threads and are lost in the 

 dimness of the distance. 



Far in the east the Sierra Nevadas 

 left their lofty forms in rude grandeur 

 above the plain; Mount Whitney. 14880 

 feet in elevation, towers above the 

 others and presents to the sun, a glitter- 

 ing, snow-capped peak. The Coast 

 Range mountains can be traced a dim 

 outline on the western horizon. Such 

 is the model home of lhe Western 

 Meadow Larks. 



Unmolested, . they congregate here in 

 countless numbers. On driving along 

 the road, they arise in flocks from the 

 road-side, fluttering a snort distance 

 and settle again. They are easy to ap- 

 proach — a poor marksman, indeed, is 

 he who mast fill his bag with Meadow 

 Lark. 



The flight of the Meadow Lark is 

 peculiar. It springs from the ground, 

 glances about as if in fear and beats its 

 wings in a laborious manner; after at- 

 taining a certain height it flys and sails 

 alternately, it but seldom enters upon 

 protracted flights, yet when -shot at it 

 sails and flies, until lost in the azure 

 depth. 



The nesting time is from the middle 

 of April to July; the nest is built in a 

 tuft of grass and is well concealed. 

 The eggs, four to six in number are 

 white, spotted with reddish-brown. 

 The Larks make model parents, show- 

 ing great solicitude for their young. 

 Harry C. Lillie, 

 Santa Barbara, Cal. 



Hermit Thrush. 



( Tardus aonalaschkcz pallasie .) 



Of the family Turdidce resident in 

 Southern New England the Hermit 

 Thrush is undoubtedly the rarest. 

 This bird, as its name implies, is soli- 

 tary in habit; and one must search in 

 the deep woods away from the "haunts 

 of man '' to find it. 



On the nineteenth of June, 1887 I had 

 the good fortune to discover a nest and 

 eggs of this species in Hartford county, 

 this state. I had set out to look for a 



