Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
THE GAY SWEET BILLY.

How the Meadowlark Changes His Not.
| With the Seasons-A Good Bird "
| North but nI-NIannered in the South
His Habits.
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.l
o the Meadowlark is the bird for me,
He sits on top of the walnut tree,
And sings aloud with voice of glee,
"Sweet Billy, Sweet Billy, come out to me-
But late in the fall,
He changes his call,
| And sings "Sweety Bill, - in q mournful tone
| As though Billy had gone and left him alone
The meadow lark, sometimes called sold
field lark" or american starling," is best
known to country boys and girls as ''sweet
Billy" from the fact of his uttering these
words so plainly when he comes to us from
the South early in April. He is one of oul
most beautiful birds when he first comes,
| bosom, but toward fall, the black breast be.
comes of dull grayish color, and it is then
| he changes his brisk notes of "sweet Billy
to a plaintive, long-drawn-out 'sweety
Bill"
The lark is one of the farmers best
| friends, as he never eats fruit and very
rarely disturbs grain when growing, al
though he occasionally eats the grains OF
oats or rye which he finds scattered in fields
at harvest time. His regular diet is insects
of different kinds, beetles, ants, etc, and
like the red-winged blackbird he is very
fond of cutworms, which he destroys in
great quantities after the fields are plowed
for corn.
They begin building early in May; both
male and female helping make the nest
which is built on the ground and composed
of dry, wiry grass made very compact, to
which a hidden and almost winding path is
mice, and generally so we'll concealed that
the nest is only to be found when the bird
is frightened from it, Their nests are yery
cosy affairs, each one having a roof over
part, if not the whole of the nest, under
which my lady lark sits protected from both
sun and rain.
Many time, when school 'let out" have
I spent happy hours hunting through the
old pasture field for lark's nest and when
1 found one, with what joy 1 carried home
the four pure white eggs, with spots of red
dish brown, and added them to my collee-
tion.
They are gregarious birds, for most of the
year, going in hocks from place to place,
and only desert their wandering life when
raising their young. have sometimes seen,
late in the fall, 100 or more collected in a
field making preparation to leave for the
South. One bird is usually perched on a
tree near by as sentinel, and the moment
& gunner approaches he gives the alarm and
the flock is on the qui vive in an instant
They are SO shy that it is very difficult to
approach them, and when shot at they are
secured only by guns of long range. Their
flight is peculiar, lowering one, the wings
moving in short, almost imperceptible vibra:
tions. -,.- -
A few larks often stay with us through
the winter, and when deep snow is on the
ground they visit Ethe barnyards and if not
molested become very tame. Although so
harmless bird in the Northern States,
when the lark goes South he loses his good
manners and becomes quite thief Audubon
says that in the Carolinas many planters
agree in denouncing the lark as a depre-
dator, alleging that he scratches up oats
when sown early in the spring, and is fond
of plucking up the young corn, wheat, rye
and rice.
John Burroughs-one of our best authori-
ties on birds-speaking of the ''return of the
birds, says: ''The swallows live and chat
ter about the barn and build beneath the
caves; the partridge drums in the fresh
sprouting woods, the long, tender note of
the meadow lark comes up from the
and he counts them the happiest
days of his life, when barefoot boy and
free from care, he wandered through the
fields and meadows
And listened to the yellow-breasted lark's
AUNT CLARE.