AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 141 



■misleading' common name of Little Meadow Lark or Little Field Lark. 



The black crescent on his throat has given him the more appropriate 

 title of Black-throated Bunting. The nest is always placed on or near 

 the ground, among the clover, in the grass and weeds, and in low 

 bushes. It is composed of weed-stems, rootlets and grasses and lined 

 with finer grasses and horse hair. The four or five eggs are of a light 

 blue color. 



Dickcissels subsist on a mixed diet of vegetable and animal matter. 

 The food of the adult birds consists of grass seed and insects, and the 

 young birds are fed exclusively on insects. They are the inveterate 

 enemy of the grasshopper, which makes them of economic importance 

 in relation to agriculture. These birds are common summer residents 

 in the Central U. S., from the Allegheny Mountains to the Great 

 Plains. Formerly they bred in the Eastern States, but now only rare- 

 ly. They winter in Tropical regions beyond our sout.'iern boundary. 



A. L. Booker. 



APRIL BIRDS. 



(In Pennsylvania.) 



The pleasures of a beautiful April morning with the birds! Cold 

 days are now practically over; and instead of the almost empty woods 

 of midwinter we find every bit of forest filled with our friends of last 

 year. Simultaneously, too, with the sprouting of the buds of trees and 

 the blossoming of the hepatica in the woods we find that bird life be- 

 gins to abound. 



Early in the month last year, I made a trip to a varied tract of land, 

 where were deciduous woods, large tracts of hemlocks, and an open 

 valley with a swollen stream rushing through. Several "mailer valleys 

 opened into it, and along the road were rolling uplands and orchards. 

 In one of these valleys, with a large field well covered with old corn 

 stalks, a flock of Grackles were filling the air with their creaking notes; 

 and this reminds me of a friend of mine who, referring to the song of 

 the Grackle, says it sounds like the water running from a spigot, which 

 was suddenly turned off; and though homely, this simile seems to me 

 accurate. 



A dash of blue! — the familiar and beloved Bluebird. He merely 

 crossed my path as if to greet m^e, and then from an apple tree close by 

 came his tender, melodious "purity-purity-purity." Next my attention 

 was attracted by a number of small grayish-olive birds. I was walk- 

 ing along when I suddenly came upon them, evidently in fierce discus- 

 sion, in a wild grape tangle. One was turned quite upside down, hang- 

 ing on a branch, with his pretty red cap showing conspicuously. In an 



