SAND DUNES AND SALT MAESHES 



started up two or three horned larks that flew 

 off emitting their characteristic notes. 



The flight song of the horned lark I have 

 heard in Labrador. The bird springs up from 

 the ground and mounts silently into the air, 

 rising in irregular circles or almost vertically 

 until it appears but a little speck in the sky, 

 or perchance is lost to sight in the scudding 

 fog. Then it soars and pours forth in great 

 ecstasy a song that begins with one or two 

 notes followed by a series of squeaks, high 

 notes and fine trills, suggestive at times of 

 distant sleigh bells and again of un-oiled gates. 

 The song finished, the bird flaps its wings a 

 few times, closes them and then sails again, 

 and again repeats its song. One bird I timed 

 remained in the air three minutes, during 

 which it repeated its song thirty-two times. 

 When the bird has finished singing it silently 

 and very rapidly plimges back to earth. The 

 performance is well worth hearing and, al- 

 though not highly musical, is very pleasing 

 and decidedly spectacular. 



The snow bunting is indeed a bird of the 

 snows, and as a flock of these white birds whirl 

 about in their fitful manner, now rising, now 

 falling, as if blown by gusts of wind, they are 



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