re it had climbed to
rest itself, was the body of a young dabchick, or piedbilled grebe,
scarcely two and one-half inches long, and not twenty-four hours out of
the egg, a beautiful little ball of blackish down, striped with brown
and white. From the latter part of July to the middle of August large
flocks of Black Terns may be seen on the shores of our larger lakes on
their annual migration southward."

The Rev. P. B. Peabody, in alluding to his observation of the nests
of the Tern, says: "Amid this floating sea of aquatic nests I saw an
unusual number of well constructed homes of the Tern. Among these was
one that I count a perfect nest. It rested on the perfectly flat
foundation of a small decayed rat house, which was about fourteen
inches in diameter. The nest, in form, is a truncated cone (barring
the cavity), was about eight inches high and ten inches in diameter.
The hollow--quite shallow--was about seven inches across, being thus
unusually large. The whole was built up of bits of rushes, carried to
the spot, these being quite uniform in length--about four inches." After
daily observation of the Tern, during which time he added much to his
knowledge of the bird, he pertinently asks: "Who shall say how many
traits and habits yet unknown may be discovered through patient watching
of community-breeding birds, by men enjoying more of leisure for such
delightful studies than often falls to the lot of most of us who have
bread and butter to earn and a tiny part of the world's work to
finish?"

THE MEADOW LARK.

"Not an inch of his body is free from delight.
Can he keep himself still if he would? Oh, not he!
The music stirs in him like wind through a tree."

The well known Meadow or Old Field Lark is a constant resident south
of latitude 39, and many winter farther north in favorite localities.
Its geographical range is eastern North America, Canada to south Nova
Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario to eastern Manitoba; west to Minnesota,
Iowa, Missouri, eastern Kansas, the Indian Territory, and Texas; south
to Florida and the Gulf coast, in all of which localities, except in the
extreme north, it usually rears two or three broods in a season. In the
Northern States it is only a summer resident, arriving in April and
remaining until the latter part of October and occasionally November.
Excepting during the breeding season, small flocks may often be seen
roving about in search of good feeding grou