[12] The author is under special obligation to Mr. John P. Haines, editor of "Our Animal Friends," and president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, for publishing the contents of this chapter in his magazine in time to be included in this volume. Also for copyright privileges in connection with this and other chapters. The bird to which I refer is called the lark bunting in plain English, or, in scientific terms, _Calamospiza melanocorys_. The male is a trig and handsome fellow, giving you the impression of a well-dressed gentleman in his Sunday suit of black, "with more or less of a slaty cast," as Ridgway puts it, the middle and greater wing-coverts bearing a conspicuous white patch which is both a diagnostic marking and a real ornament. In flight this patch imparts to the wing a filmy, almost semi-transparent, aspect. The bunting is about the size of the eastern bobolink, and bears some resemblance to that bird; but bobolink he is not, although sometimes mistaken for one, and even called by that name in Colorado. The fact is, those wise men, the systematists, have decided that the bobolink belongs to the family _Icteridæ_, which includes, among others, the blackbirds and orioles, while the lark bunting occupies a genus all by himself in the family _Fringillidæ_--that is, the family of finches, sparrows, grosbeaks, and towhees. Therefore, the two birds can scarcely be called second cousins. The bunting has no white or buff on his upper parts.