FIELD BIRDS 109 



feeding ground, or, hesitating a moment, as if their 

 interrupted meal were too good to leave, they drop 

 back to the place from which they started. 



Most of the Horned Larks that spend the winter 

 with us leave early in April to return to their summer 

 home in the Arctic regions. Those that remain 

 with us during the summer are smaller and paler, 

 with a white instead of yellow forehead and with 

 little or no yellow on the throat. This, the Prairie 

 Horned Lark, is the first of our song birds to go to 

 housekeeping, the three or four greenish white, 

 speckled eggs being laid as early as the first week 

 in March. Although the Horned Lark is a cousin 

 of the Skylark, its song is a weak, unmusical twitter 

 which bears but small resemblance to that of its 

 famous relative. Perhaps because it lacks the in- 

 spiration which carries the Skylark far up into the 

 sky, there to pour forth its song, the Horned Lark 

 sings from a humble clod of earth as well as while 

 soaring. 



Lapland Longspur 



If we find in a flock of Horned Larks one, or per- 

 haps two or three darker birds, we will probably 

 have seen that rare winter visitor from the far 

 North, the Lapland Longspur. 



Possibly because he loves company and cannot find 



