THE OOLOGIST. 



109 



common with others which spend the 

 great part' of their time running over 

 the ground. 



Possibly the old birds worried by my 

 frequent and prolonged visits were led 

 to precipitate matters thereby. The 

 young had only left the nest an hour or 

 two I knew by the excrements which 

 it contained. 



Four days later j .took possession of 

 what effects the family had left — name- 

 ly the very simple nest and its immed- 

 iate surroundings — a little sod, a stunt- 

 ed tussock of grass and some bare 

 ground — all carefully gotten out 

 entire with a spade. 



And here I must say we cannot be 

 too careful in collecting nests, in our 

 survey of the surronnding country, and 

 in taking the nests to have with them 

 as much of the immediate environments 

 as possible. It is this which gives to 

 our 'notes' and 'finds' the highest scien- 

 tific value. To be sure, superfluities 

 may be gathered sometimes, vet there 

 is no science without minuteness and 

 exactness, and moreover, by their cul- 

 tivation we will become better see-ers, 

 better hearers, better judgers, — ia short 

 better observers — more highly qualified 

 to perform any and all forms of scien- 

 tific work. 



This nest was composed of a small 

 quantity of fine native pasture grass 

 and the fine frost-lighted grass 

 roots which lay all around — just such 

 materials as were to be gathered to- 

 gether on the spot. No hairs nor any- 

 thing in the lining. It was built with 

 the top flush with the surface of the 

 ground against the before-mentioned 

 stunted grass-clump which protected 

 its north-of-west side slightly. It was 

 located on a slight southern and east- 

 ern slope in the midst of one of those 

 pastui'es hundreds of acres in extent 

 which are rather plentiful in this sec- 

 tion of Ohio — a great grazing country, 

 ei'e the cattle I'aising of the West ruined 

 the business in the East. 



The nest was 2^ inches wide and 

 If inches deep, the walls almost 

 perpendicular, the bottom part a per- 

 fect cup in shape, altogether a peculiar 

 type of nest one readily recognized 

 anywhei'e, I should think, though so 

 simple and coarse of workmanship. 



In nesting in that old exposed pas- 

 ture the birds exhibited their hardihood 

 and farther, their love of barren and 

 w^aste places, for they could easily have 

 found sheltered locations in tall grasses 

 along the borders of woods or in 

 swamps and meadows. 



The same day upon which I took the 

 nest I heard the flight song of this 

 species for the first time. Kev. 

 J. H. Langille's description of it in 

 "Our Birds in Their Haunts" is too 

 exact and good to be improved on. 

 The 'song' was certainly little more 

 than the screeching of a wheelbarrow 

 ungreased. I confess I was disappoint- 

 ed with it. I would have had it sing a 

 very brave song. Something like 

 Shelley's Skylark: 



"Higher still, and higher 

 From the earth thou springest 



Like a cloud of fire ; 

 The blue deep thou wingest, 



And singing stfll dost soar, and scaring 

 ever singest," 



Yet so far as I have heard there is no 

 voice like it in heaven; nor on earth 

 under heaven. It was a new voice in 

 my feathered choir of friends and wel- 

 come enough. 



Had I been able to examine the eggs 

 of this nest, I would feel that I had 

 become faii'ly well acquainted with the 

 leading facts in the life history of this 

 species which was heretofore but a 

 pleasing and interesting winter acquain- 

 tance met only amid the snows, frosts 

 and frozen glories of that season, grace- 

 fully walking over drifts with its ani- 

 mated cry and graceful elegantly color- 

 ed form painted against the snow, busy 

 among such weeds as were not sub- 

 merged. 



In The Geological Survey of Ohio, 



