WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 207 



to muster courage sufficient to come down and defend 

 their little ones. 



The young larks leave the nest usually on the ninth 

 day after hatching, although one brood certainly were 

 gone on the fourth day, and one remained until the 

 tenth. They are beautiful babies, of soft mottled light 

 and dark brown and cream buffy ; they are fed by both 

 parents until fairly well grown, when the male takes 

 entire charge, and the female scratches out another nest 

 in the stubbly grass or sand. The education of the 

 family thus depends entirely on the father bird, who 

 may be found any sunny afternoon, initiating them into 

 the mysteries of a dust bath, or standing beside them 

 under a sagebush, panting in the terrible heat that 

 beats down from the cloudless sky and up from the 

 blistering sand. In the early morning you can watch 

 them feeding on the insects and seeds on the ground. 

 A little later in the season, if you are an early riser, you 

 may witness their first singing lesson. With wide-eyed 

 amazement and dawning envy they have watched their 

 father rise twittering through the clear air ; and, one by 

 one, they learn to do it too. The first I ever saw start 

 gave a little bound, uttered a weak "tweet, tweet," 

 and fluttered up about ten feet only to sink back again. 

 But he was full of triumph and, unable to contain him- 

 self any longer, soon attempted a second flight. The 

 method is very like that of the bobolink, though the 

 result is far less brilliant. Yet so full of irrepressible 

 joy in living is the Horned Lark that as you listen you 

 are glad, like him, just to be alive. 



