FAR AND NEAR 



the winter near the snow-Hne in the Southern States, 

 and the summer in the hilly parts of New York, 

 New England, and Canada. 



The above description makes the bird much too 

 large, as its size is nearer that of the boboHnk and 

 the bluebird. All the larks have the hind toe very 

 prominent. This species, like the true skylark, is 

 entirely a terrestrial bird, and never alights upon 

 trees. When singing it soars and hovers high in air 

 like the skylark, but its song is a very crude, feeble 

 affair in comparison with that of the latter. Its 

 winter plumage is far less marked than its summer 

 dress. One day I took note of one singing above my 

 native hills, when it repeated its feeble, hsping song 

 one hundred and three times before it closed its wings 

 and dropped to the earth precisely as does the Euro- 

 pean skylark. 



Another teacher writes me asking if the blue jay 

 eats acorns. She is sure she has seen them flying 

 away from oak-trees with acorns in their beaks, and 

 yet some authority to whom she had appealed was 

 doubtful about their eating them. It is quite certain 

 that jays eat acorns, but they carry away and hide 

 a great many more than they eat. The thieving pro- 

 pensity of the jay, which is a trait of his family, 

 the Corvidw, leads him to carry away chestnuts and 

 acorns and hide them in the grass and under leaves, 

 and thus makes him an unsuspecting instrument 

 in the planting of forests. This is the reason why, 

 166 



