206 LAND BIRDS 



separate, each pair preempting a quarter section of land 

 and setting up a homestead claim. Anywhere -in the 

 open, sometimes close to a clump of sage, sometimes 

 almost in the travelled wagon road, the little nests are 

 made in a saucer-like hollow in the ground. The only 

 material used is dry buffalo grass or fine vegetation, a 

 small quantity of which usually lines the nest for the 

 earliest brood. In the second brood, however, whether 

 because of the warmer season or the carelessness of cus- 

 tom, the eggs are often laid on the bare ground, with 

 no attempt at nest-building. 



While the mother prepares the cradle, the father 

 indulges in aerial concerts. You may hear the sweet, 

 tinkling music while yet he is a mere speck in the blue, 

 tumbling and turning with the rapture of his song. He 

 calls to his mate ; she hears, you may be sure, and in 

 a moment she too is frolicking through the sunny air 

 as if life held no such word as care. But when the 

 snug little nest holds eggs, she foregoes the fun of a chase 

 over the fields and sits patiently for nine days, in heat 

 so intense that she gasps with open bill. It has seemed 

 to me the eggs would be cooked if left too long exposed 

 to the hot desert sun, and that her brooding was fully as 

 much to shield them from his fiery rays as to preserve 

 them from the cool night air with her body. If sur- 

 prised on her eggs, the mother runs a few yards and 

 begins feeding as unconcernedly as possible ; but if there 

 are young in the nest, both parents exhibit great dis- 

 tress. Back and forth over the field they fly, crying 

 " tseet, tseet ! " in pitifully appealing tones, and trying 



