. Camps and cruises of an ornithologist, by Frank M. Chapman .. . owlarks nest was notedat 4:10, when the female, who had evidently passed thenight with her family, was seen cleaniug the nest—an ad-mirable way, surely, to begin the day. A moment later sheleft the nest, fiying so near the blind that I could hear therush of her wings. The blind, therefore, was accepted with-out question as a feature of the landscape. It had beenerected without alarming the birds; I had entered it un-seen ; it was wholly without human associations and as aninanimate object did not arouse the birds suspicions. At
. Camps and cruises of an ornithologist, by Frank M. Chapman .. . owlarks nest was notedat 4:10, when the female, who had evidently passed thenight with her family, was seen cleaniug the nest—an ad-mirable way, surely, to begin the day. A moment later sheleft the nest, fiying so near the blind that I could hear therush of her wings. The blind, therefore, was accepted with-out question as a feature of the landscape. It had beenerected without alarming the birds; I had entered it un-seen ; it was wholly without human associations and as aninanimate object did not arouse the birds suspicions. At 4:25, the female returned with food and, from thistime until 6:34, she visited the nest sixteen times, on eachoccasion feeding one bird and occasionally two, and withone exception, always inspecting the nest and taking withher the sac-enveloped excreta, which, if left, would soonhave rendered the nest uninhabitable. The male, from his favorite perch on a red cedar in theneighboring fence-row, greeted the female on her first jour- A MORNING WITH MEADOWLARKS 17. fyjii%^ The male started nervously ney from the nest, by beginning to sing at 4:20. From thistime until 6:43, he sang almost continuously, when, hismorning devotions being concluded, he joined his mate inthe more practical work of grub-hunting. Between 6:43 and 11:05, when I left the blind, the birdsvisited the nest forty times. Almost invariably the male,on leaving, flew directly to one of his several song perches, TRAVELS ABOUT HOME and sang from five to seven times before searching forfood; but, in spite of this handicap, he fed the young as of-ten as the female, both making twenty visits. The female,unaided, thus fed the young at the rate of about once ineight minutes but when both sexes were at work, the ratewas increased to once every six and a half minutes.
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirdsnorthamerica
