24 



THE MEADOWLARK. 



NEST AND EGGS 



Fhoto by Rev. VV. F. Hcnninger. 

 OF MEADOWEARK. 



The Meadow 

 Lark's nest is the 

 treasure trove of 

 every farm boy. 

 Eggsmay be 

 looked for the first 

 weel< in May, or 

 earlier as one pro- 

 ceeds south. The 

 female is a close 

 sitter, sometimes 

 allowing approach 

 within a foot or 

 two before flush- 

 ing. Oftener, how- 

 ever, she leaves 

 the nest at the ap- 

 proach of danger 

 and sneaks away 



with consummate skill, until she chooses to discover herself at a distance suffi- 

 cient to mislead. The nests are well hidden in the deeper grass of meadows 

 and pastures, and are frequently overarched with dried grasses, not so much 

 for the purpose of protection against the weather, as has been suggested, but 

 as a further aid to concealment. 



According to Dr. Jones, a favorite way to locate the Meadow Lark's nest 

 is to pass right by the anxious male as he stands on some post twitching his tail 

 nervously and shouting signal calls to his sitting mate. When he thinks the 

 danger past he will, as likely as not, fly straight to the hidden nest, chuckling 

 with self-approbation and eager to tell Mrs. Magna all about it. 



Besides the familiar whistling song of three or four notes. Meadow Lark 

 occasionally indulges a perfect whirlwind of bubbling notes, interspersed with 

 whistled "whews, "delivered while sailing down on stiffened wing, or fluttering 

 about in an excited circle, always, we may be sure, for the benefit of his enam- 

 orata. He is also much given to a sort of rubbing, rattling cry, very expressive, 

 but very hard to reproduce or describe. This is the language of ordinary Stur- 

 nelline intercourse. With it he sputters his indignation at an intruding 

 stranger, or congratulates himself upon having sucessfullv outwitted a passing 

 hawk. In this dialect too he pours forth a flood of blarney and sweet talk 

 during a tete-a-tete with some gracious female. 



Meadow Lark has an impressive note of apprehension and strong emotion, 

 zzvect, delivered in a half-crouching posture. Again he boasts another, even 

 more startling, a note of alarm and eminent distrust, turk, or turk. turk, 



