Meadow Lark

a member of the oriole family. It is rather unfortunate that this fine bird should be called a lark, as it is much more nearly related to the bobolink and the blackbird. It is a dignified, well behaved, brown bird, with a fine yellow throat and breast marked with a black crescent. Its favorite perch is the top of a fence post. Neither timid nor familiar, it nests on the ground, generally overarching its home with grasses in the shelter of a clod or tuft of some sort. Eggs, four to six, white, speckled with cinnamon. The meadow lark makes a harmless living on insects and seeds. Sportsmen are frequently deceived for an instant when their dogs, pointing for chickens and quail, flush a meadow lark. In flight it shows a white outer feather on each side of the tail. A western species, a trifle smaller than the preceding, breeds from the upper Mississippi Valley westward to British Columbia. It has a fine reputation as a songster.