The Audubon Societies 



367 



gathered about our feeding-station, for we hear not another sound until we 

 surmount the hill and come to the open fields. Then a rolUng twitter overhead 

 attracts our attention and we see a little cloud of Snow Buntings swirling 

 over, their white breasts and broad white patches in their wings giving them 

 the appearance of a veritable snow-flurry. The illusion is heightened when, 

 with a broad sweep, they wheel and settle down on an adjacent field where we 

 can see other dark-colored birds feeding among the weeds that project above 

 the snow. There were several darker birds among the Buntings and we hasten 

 on in the hope of discovering some of the rare Lapland Longspurs that some- 

 times stray into our part of the country with the Buntings. We are doomed to 



W% 



PRAIRIE HORNED LARKS— MALE AND FEMALE 

 Photographed by Verdi Burtch 



disappointment, however, for when we sneak up behind the old rail-fence and 

 get our glasses on the flock, we discover that they are Horned Larks. The 

 Prairie Horned Lark is the common one with us, though occasionally the 

 eastern 'Shore Lark' visits us in winter, and so we scan the flock very carefully 

 to see if some of the birds are not yellower above and behind the eye. There is 

 much difference in the amount of yellow on the throat of the birds we are 

 watching but this is apparently indicative only of age or sex. They are all 

 gray above and behind the eye, and we have to be content to add but two species 

 to our list. The Snow Buntings, likewise, show considerable variation in the 

 amount of brown on their heads and backs, though none of them is as distinctly 

 black and white as all will be in the spring when the brown veiling of the 

 feathers wears off. They are rather erratic in their movements and suddenly, 

 without the slightest warning, as though by some innate understanding, the 

 whole flock of Buntings and Larks brisks off, mingling their twitters and 

 sharp tse-tse notes. 



We continue down the fence-row and soon hear the convivial notes of a 



