J. Cassidy—■Perching Birds of Canada



321



Mr. A. P. Taverner, writing in his inimitable manner of this bird,

says regarding its voice : “ One of its most characteristic calls has been

well syllabized by a Western ornithologist as King-chigle-a-bunk *

in contrast with the Eastern Meadow Lark which says ‘ Toodle-de-

you It is an extremely valuable bird to the farmer. The crop

analysis shows that its food consists of 75 per cent insects, 12 per cent

weed-seeds, and 13 per cent grain. The grain is taken at the season of

the year when insects are very scarce.


The little creature is not only beautiful and economically useful

but it is famous, and deservedly, for its lovely voice which rings “ rich

and full and true ” over the open fields and prairies. It is impossible

to describe the voice. One distinctive effect may be mentioned, its

ventriloquistic quality. The song sounds loud and close to the ear ;

one looks up at a nearby fence, but no bird is to be seen. The trilling

continues, and the volume of sound increases, but the songster is a

hundred yards or more away ! Perhaps this beautiful voice is the most

welcome as the herald of spring, which comes when the trade-winds

have melted the dreary waste of snow encircling the ranch, and the

Western plainsman hears the notes that announce so unmistakably

the coming of spring.


We pass on with the song of the Western Meadow Lark yet ringing

out, to a brief consideration of the Yellow-headed and Bed-winged

Blackbirds. The Yellow-headed is the larger of the two. The two birds,

however, have much in common.


Not by any means a quiet spot is the nesting place of a colony.

Noise and constant coming and going, excursions and incursions

and other alarms, croaking, gurgling of rough harsh voices, with

intermittent outbreak of strenuous and raucous objections, the flashing

and fluttering of brilliant colours and of black wings, both species taking

a part in the activities, distinguish the nesting marshes of the colonies.


Here is a spirited account of a Blackbird roost just before sunset

given by Mr. A. P. Taverner. “ The birds come in from every direction

talking and croaking loudly, in vast black clouds, looking on the

horizon like wisps of smoke blowing before the wind. They pitch

into a bed of reeds already occupied by earlier arrivals, until each



