Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/609

Rh madrigal, then performs a few irregular evolutions, and returns to the ground. There also it sings, but less frequently, and with less fulness. Its call-note is quite mellow, and altered at times in a ventriloqual man- ner, so different, as to seem like that of another species. As soon as the young are hatched, the whole are comparatively mute, merely using the call-note. Only one brood is reared each season.

The food of the Shore Lark consists of grass-seeds, the blossoms of dwarf plants, and insects. It is an expert catcher of flies, following insects

on wing to a considerable distance, and now and then betaking itself to the sea-shore to search for minute shell-fish or Crustacea. It associates with the Brown Lark (Jnthus Sphioletta), which indeed breeds in the same places. As I found the nest of the latter in Labrador, for the first time in my life, I will here describe it. It is always, I believe, placed next to the foot of a rock, in a tuft of grass, and is entirely composed of fine bent grass, neatly lined with delicate fibrous roots, without any feathers. The eggs, usually four, are small, and of a very dark uniform chocolate colour.

The Shore Larks reach the United States at the approach of winter. When the weather is severe in the north, they are seen in Massachu- setts as early as October. Many spend the winter there, in the vicinity of the sea shore and sandy fields ; others retire farther south, but seldom proceed beyond Maryland on the Atlantic, or the lower parts of Kentucky, west of the Alleghany mountains. My friend Bachman never saw one near Charleston, and only one have I seen in Louisiana, where the poor thing appeared quite lost, and so fatigued, that I caught it. I am, there- fore, scarcely disposed to believe that this species was ever found on the table land of Mexico, as asserted by Mr Bullock.

At this season they fly in their usual loose manner, over the fields and open grounds, in search of food, which now consists of seeds, and the dormant larvae of insects, mixing with the Brown Lark, and now and then with the Cow Bunting and others. They become plump and fat, and afford delicious food, for which reason our eastern markets are supplied with them. Although they at times alight on fences, I never saw one on a tree. The ground, indeed, is their proper place; there they repose, near tufts of dry grass, in small groups, until the return of day, when they run about in a straggling manner. If affrighted, the whole take to wing, perform a few evolutions, and alight on the same ground again.