74 OUR SOUTHERN BIRDS 



to help him, but so soon as he took up the sickle 

 himself fled at once, convinced that reaping 

 would now actually begin? Not so wise as all 



MEADOWLARK 

 Length 10% inches 



this, but still very well acquainted with the ways 

 of harvests and fields is our friend of the open 

 as we know him, — flying up before our feet with 

 a sputtering note of alarm, only to drop out of 

 sight in the deep grass as a stone drops into a 

 pool; or showing his bright yellow breast and 

 black V-shaped collar from the top of a stump 

 or fence-post; or fifing "spring o' the year — 



