LARK BUNTING. 233 



interesting and absorbing. As I was traveling by coach at the time, I had no oppor- 

 tunity of looking for the nests. Judging from the fact that I saw scarcely any females, 

 the birds were then either incubating or brooding over their young. The more con- 

 spicuous and voluble males were almost constantly in view, fluttering over the grass, 

 every now and then starting up on tremulous wing, almost perpendicularly in the air, 

 hovering and singing the while, till they dropped as if exhausted. Sometimes several 

 were in view at once, and I used to watch their vocal rivalry with unflagging interest, 

 as each strove, it seemed, to rise the higher, and carol the louder its joyous song. 



"The Lark Bunting nests on the ground in open prairie, building, as usual in such 

 cases, a rather rude structure of grasses and slender weed-stalks, with merely a little 

 finer material of the same sort for lining. The nest is sunk flush with the surface of the 

 ground. The eggs are commonly five in number, sometimes only four. They are of a 

 clear pale bluish-green, and look almost exactly like those of a Bluebird, in fact, could 

 not be distinguished with certainty, though rather larger and thicker. 



"The following was prepared by Mr. Allen for this work: 'The Lark Bunting, 

 though of rather local distribution and limited range, must be regarded as one of the 

 most characteristic and interesting birds of the Plains. Generally in the breeding season 

 a number of pairs are found in the same vicinity, while again not an individual may be 

 met with for many miles. At other seasons it is eminently gregarious, roving about in 

 considerable flocks. In its song and the manner of its delivery it much resembles the 

 Yellow-breasted Chat, like that bird rising to a considerable distance in the air, and 

 poising itself by a peculiar flapping of the wings during its utterances, then abruptly 

 descending to the ground to soon repeat the manoevre. It is a very strong flier, and 

 seems to delight in the strongest gales, singing more at such times than in compara- 

 tively quiet weather. I met with several colonies not far firom Fort Hays in June and 

 July, and later at Cheyenne, Laramie, and in South Park, and in the elevated open 

 table-lands, between South Park and Colorado City. They were also frequent along 

 the route from Colorado City to Denver, sometimes considerable flocks being met with. 

 They were then moulting, and the parti-colored flocks of young and old were quite un- 

 suspicious and easily approached. During the breeding season we found them exceedingly 

 shy and difficult to procure, and were unsuccessful in our efforts to discover their nests.' " 

 NAMES: Lark Bunting, White-winged Blackbird.— Lerchenammer (German). 

 SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Fring-illa bicolor Towns. (1837). Calamospiza bicolor Bovap. (1838). Corydalina 



bicolor Atid. (1839). Dolkhonyx bicolor Nutt. (1840). CALAMOSPIZA MELANOCORYS Stejn. 



(1885). 

 DESCRIPTION: "Adult male in summer: Uniform black, with more or less of a slaty cast, the middle and 



greater wing-coverts, white, forming a very conspicuous patch on the wing. Adult female: Above, 



brownish-gray, streaked with dusky, the white wing-patch, smaller; lower parts, white, streaked on 



breast and sides with dusky." (R. Ridgway.) 



Length, 6.81 inches; wing, 3.40; tail, 3.10 inches. 



30 



