444 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
It is one of our first birds to arrive from the south, in fact, a few individuals 
always winter in favorable places in the southern part of the state, and in 
mild winters considerable numbers remain. The northward movement 
always begins early in March if not before, but the records for the southern 
part of the state are of course vitiated by the fact that some of the birds 
have wintered there. At Lansing the first arrivals range from March 3 
to March 28, and probably an average date for the center of the Lower 
Peninsula would be March 12. Often they come in small flocks, but these 
are seldom compact and the birds are soon found everywhere, in pairs or 
singly, or occasionally in little parties of three to five. 
Nest building begins early in May and fresh eggs may be found at almost 
any time after the 10th of that month in southern Michigan, and from 
ten days to two weeks later in the more northern counties. Very com- 
monly, if not usually, a second nesting takes place in July, and it is not 
uncommon to find young birds barely able to fly late in August. The nest 
is always placed on the ground, sometimes in the side of a tussock or bank, 
but more often on the level ground in some neglected field, pasture or 
meadow, where the dead grass is somewhat long. It is always well con- 
cealed, and not infrequently is approached by a covered tunnel or run, 
sometimes extending two feet or more from the nest. The nest itself 
is composed almost entirely of grasses, and the eggs are commonly five or 
six, occasionally four or seven. They are variously marked with brown, 
purple and lavender dots and lines on a nearly white ground color. Some- 
times the spots are very few, and rarely the eggs are thickly spotted. 
They average 1.10 by .78 inches. Incubation is said to last fifteen or 
sixteen days. 
The song of the Meadowlark is hardly more than a prolonged call-note, 
yet it is so sweet and clear that when first heard after the long silence of 
winter it is one of the most attractive of bird calls. Bendire writes the 
song ‘‘hee-hee-hee-thee-hea” and gives the call-note or alarm-note as 
“eeck-eeck, ending with a tremulous quaver.” 
From the standpoint of the agriculturist the Meadowlark has few rivals; 
in fact, we do not know that it has a single bad habit. It feeds almost 
entirely upon insects, grass-seed and weed-seeds, rarely eating grain of any 
kind and probably never taking sprouting grain or grain from the head 
or shock. Moreover, the insects consumed are nearly or quite all injurious 
forms. It eats moths, grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, cut-worms, cater- 
pillars, and a variety of other insects, but is partial to the forms which are 
so constantly present in pastures and meadows, working upon the vegetation 
in such places that it is impossible for the farmer to destroy them. This 
bird by no means confines itself to the naked span-worms and other larve 
which most other birds eat, but it devours with equal avidity the hairy 
caterpillars which few birds will touch. In Illinois, in the summer of 1880, 
Professor Forbes found that the Meadowlarks ate the chinch bug “‘in barely 
sufficient numbers to show that they have no unconquerable prejudice 
against them.” 
It is much to be regretted that the bird is large enough to make an 
attractive mark for the would-be sportsman and the small boy, for it is 
followed up relentlessly and shot for food or for “sport” in spite of the 
protective law which absolutely forbids its destruction at any time, but 
which unfortunately is seldom enforced. The Meadowlark is not naturally 
shy or suspicious and wherever it is rigidly protected for a few seasons 
it becomes familiar and even confiding, nesting readily in close proximity 
