AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



29 



the nest. It was a bulky affair, firmly suspended between four of the 

 sprouts, and contained three pale blue eggs curiously scrawled with 

 black. The Red-wing's kept up such a clatter that I left their domains 

 after making these observations, and it was just here that I heard what 

 I had wished for, the loud sputtering call note of the Meadow Lark. 

 I preceived her on the topmost bough of a nearby tree, with head erect, 

 tail nervously twitching, her golden breast flashing in the sunshine. 

 She sat there several minutes occasionally repeating her call note 

 and then, leaving her perch, sailed out across the meadow, alighting on 

 a weed that swayed to and fro under her weight. Assuming the same 

 alert attitude as when in the tree she uttered her call note once and 

 then dropped lightly into the grass below. I waited and watched for 



Photo from life by N. W. Swayiie. 

 BARN OWL. 



twenty minutes and as she didn't appear again I decided to. try to find 

 her though I didn't much expect to find her nest for if she had one there 

 it didn't seem probable that she would have approached it so openly, 

 however, when I neared the spot where she she disappeared she flew 

 up with a loud flutter of wings that startled me even though I was 

 expecting it. I drew the grass aside where she had been sitting, and 



