A Surprised Crow 



85 



fairly under way, his tail in the snow and head and feet hidden by his partly 

 opened wings (Fig. i). Mr. Stone, however, caught him clear from the ground, 

 his wings fully extended, head and feet forward, and with a beautiful look of 

 surprise (Fig. 2). After this he seemed to be satisfied that there was no 

 danger, for in a few minutes he was calmly pulling the pieces of suet from the 

 board and eating it, with others of his clan. 



An Unusual Horned Lark Family 



By FRANK LEVY 



With a Photograph by the Author 



IT was in the Calumet region, just south of Chicago, that on May 17, 

 1918, I first saw the pair of Prairie Horned Larks of which I am writing. 

 At that time I could find no sign of a nest, although the birds appeared to 

 be attached to a certain portion of the prairie. This was a dry section bounded 

 on three sides by swamps at a distance of about 200 feet. It seemed queer to 



HORNED LARK A1»)UT TO FEED YOUNG 



me to see three species of Rails, Coots, Pintails, and Blue-winged Teal within 

 a short distance of the dry country inhabited by Horned Larks. On May 

 24, while working the same place, I flushed one of the birds from its nest, and, 

 upon examining it, I found eight eggs. They were unquestionably all Horned 

 Lark's eggs, and, to all appearances, from this one pair of birds. As far as I 

 know, the usual set of eggs is three or four, this being the only exception that 

 I have heard of. 



Two weeks later, on May 31, after we had had two days of violent rain, I 

 returned to Calumet and found not only that the nest was intact and that all 

 of the eight eggs had hatched, but that the birds were about five days old. 

 In fact, some of them kicked themselves out of the nest when I came near and 

 tried their feeble legs. While I was examining the young birds from a distance of 



