The Prairie Horned Lark 



153 



directly under foot, nor do they run along the ground first, after the 

 manner of a great many of the ground builders, but keep a good 

 look out, and fly straight from the nest when anyone comes within 

 fifty feet of them. It is needless to say that it takes sharp eyes 

 to discover their exact position. 



At my arrival on the bright, sunny morning of April 24, the 

 Lark was at home, and I had another opportunity of trying to 



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photograph her. I focused the camera three feet from the nest and 

 retired to the end of my 60-foot rubber tube. The gophers seemed 

 to be less afraid of me than the Lark, and several of them played 

 together some ten feet away. One little striped rascal began gnaw- 

 ing at the rubber tube, and I was forced to frighten him away. 

 This tube greatly puzzled the Lark, for in running around the 

 camera she always came to a halt upon reaching it, and it was 

 only after repeated trials and much excitement that she screwed up 

 courage enough to hop over. Twenty minutes seemed to be suffi- 

 cient time to reassure her, and with head lowered she hastened to 

 the nest, looked in, and settled down upon the eggs. An exposure 

 of one twenty-fifth of a second with stop 16 shows her as she was 

 looking into the nest. While I reset my shutter and put in a new 

 plate the Lark left the nest, but this time it took her only two 

 minutes to return. A photograph of a young bird was taken on 

 May 7. The pair of birds that were feeding this young one had already 

 built a second nest, thinner and more loosely put together than the 

 first, and were incubating four eggs. 



The enemies of the Prairie Horned Lark seem to be very numer- 



