Page:Bird-lore Vol 01.djvu/166

 The Prairie Horned Lark ^ BY ROBERT W. HEGNER With iiliotographs from nature by the author AT intervals throughout the winter, but more often after the first of February, flocks of hardy little brown birds may be seen about Decorah, la., wandering from place to place in search of food. They are the Prairie Horned Larks, harbingers of approaching spring. Some weeks later, when the snow has melted, they seek their favorite haunts in the pasture lands, select a slight elevation from the sur- rounding surface, and proceed to build their nests. They first dig a hole three inches wide and three inches deep in the softened ground, and then line it on the bottom and sides to the depth of an inch with dry grasses, making a warm nest, level with the surface. I accidentally discovered the first one this season on April g. It was nicely lined with vegetable down in addition to the usual lining of dry grasses, and was finished ready for the eggs. I returned in a week, but, as the mother bird was not at home, had to content myself with a photograph of the three finely spotted eggs which it then contained. Some children who observed my move- ments may be held responsible for the destruction of the nest, as •. NEST AND EGGS OF HORNED LARK two days later I could find nothing but the hole from which it had been torn. After a short search another Lark flushed from a nest of three eggs almost identical with the first and about 300 yards from it. Unless incubation is far advanced they seldom flush from (152)