The creek where the whippoorwills nested, the rolling hills of wild flowers, and the soothing sound of meadow larks - they were all the sights and sounds of a happy childhood.
Amongst the Passeres, such forms as the larks, stone-chats, finches, linnets and grosbeaks are well developed, and exhibit many species.
In'the birds, the Ethiopian type is shown by the prevalence of larks and' ",stone-chats, and by the complete absence of the many peculiar genera of the Indian region.
Pp. 332- Keyserling 334) that, while all the other birds provided with perfect song-muscles had the " planta " or hind part of the and " tarsus " covered with two long and undivided horny plates, the larks (q.v.) had this part divided by many transverse sutures, so as to be scutellated behind as well as in front; just as is the case in many of the passerines which have not the singingapparatus, and also in the hoopoe.
The herons, for instance, are much more Constrictipedes " than are the larks or the kingfishers, and, so far from the majority of " Inconstrictipedes " being polygamous, there is scarcely any evidence of polygamy obtaining as a habit among birds in a state of nature except in certain of the Gallinae and a very few others.
That this was the case is undeniably shown by some remarks of Canon Tristram, who, in treating of the Alaudidae and Saxicolinae of Algeria (whence he had recently brought a large collection of specimens of his own making), stated (Ibis, 18 59, pp. 4 2 9-433) that he could " not help feeling convinced of the truth of the views set forth by Messrs Darwin and Wallace," adding that it was " hardly possible, I 'should think, to illustrate this theory better than by the larks and chats of North Africa."
Pheasants, ducks, geese and snipe are abundant, and Dr C. Collingwood in his Naturalist's Rambles in the China Seas mentions .Ardea prasinosceles and other species of herons, several species of fly-catchers, kingfishers, shrikes and larks, the black drongo, the Cotyle sinensis and the Prinia sonitans.
The more important wild animals are a large wild sheep (Ovis poli), foxes, wolves, jackals, bears, boars, deer and leopards; amongst birds, there are partridges, pheasants, ravens, jays, sparrows, larks, a famous breed of hawks, &c.
The place of the vanishing native species is being taken by such European arrivals as sky-larks, finches, blackbirds, sparrows and rooks.
Many writers have included in it the buntings (Emberizidae), though these seem to be quite distinct, as well as the larks (Alaudidae), the tanagers (Tanagridae), and the weaver-birds (Ploceidae).
Robins, bluebirds, warblers, chickadees, finches, vireos, wrens, yellow-headed blackbirds, nutcrackers, nuthatches, meadow-larks, sparrows, woodpeckers, swifts, kingbirds and several other species of small birds are found in the park, but the number of each is not great.
There may also be mentioned 21 cuckoos, I cockatoo, 20 parrots and parakeets, 20 woodpeckers, barbets, broadbills, starlings, orioles, weaver-finches, larks, nuthatches, 28 beautifully coloured sun-birds, and 23 flower-peckers, titmice, shrikes, swallow-shrikes, tailor-birds, thrushes, fruit-thrushes, fairy blue-birds, fire-birds, 42 fly-catchers, 4 swallows, and 5 species of most beautifully coloured ant-thrushes, as well as a large number of birds for which English names cannot be readily supplied.
The greater number of birds belong to the order Passeres; starlings, weavers and larks are very common, the Cape canary, long-tailed sugar bird, pipits and wagtails are fairly numerous.
Song birds are numerous and of many varieties; among them are thrushes, mocking birds, blue birds, robins, wrens, chickadees, warblers, vireos, sparrows, bobolinks (reed birds or rice birds), meadow larks and orioles.
A herd of cattle was being driven along the road from the village, and over the fields the larks rose trilling, one after another, like bubbles rising in water.