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May, 1911 MY AVIAN VISITORS: NOTES i?ROM SOUTH I)AKOTA 93 TO TIlE ?I?ADOWLARK O, blithesome bird, Thy voice is heard While yet the Frosf-king rules the land, And e'en when flowers, 'Mid fragrant showers, Are waked to life by Springtime's wand. And yet so sweet, Thy song is meet To thrill the pulses of the gods, When on a gay Autumnal day Thou singest 'mid the golden-rods. That sound so clear From far and near-- That sound so common, yet so rare-- That j3yous flood, Euterpe's blood-- Pours out to drown the fiends of care. For ages long That selfsame song Unchanged has welcomed each new day; Would Faith and Love, All else above, Were changeless as thy wondrous lay! That beautiful relative of the meadowlark, the l?ed-winged Blackbird (Age- laius t?hvenieeus), was not a common visitor to the barnyard at Medicine Root. He belongs to the low-lying meadows and the marshes, and in order to ascertain with any accuracy his times of arrival and departure, we must be on hand at such places in spring and autumn. On March 11, 1904, however, I saw a Red-wing at my hay- stack. On April 20 of the same year a male Yellow-head (,k'anthoee?alus xa?l?o- et?alus) also paid me a visit. Either of these two birds is not common there- abouts. But along the sluggish streams and among the swampy meadows that abound in many regions of that country, both the Red-wings and the Yellow- heads are very abundant. At Grass Creek,. about forty miles westward, I found the Red-wings in large numbers nesting in the wolfberry thickets throughout. the month of June. Among t.he afore-mentioned pines dwell the Pinyon Jays, or ' Blue Crows (Cyanoce2bhalus cyanoce2bhalus). "Pinebird" is the vernacular name, and not a bad one, either. These, as a rule, are birds of the wilds, which at most seasons fly about in sizable flocks, uttering weird .cries, half caw, half mew. Once in a while a flock will alight near an Indian tepee, investigate for a moment, then fly away. They are fond of hovering along the high bluffs that border the creeks, and peering into the cracks and crevices thereof. While thus emplo3?ed, I presume that they are in search of insects and their larvae. At lXTo Flesh Creek, not far from my station, I on one Occasion saw a Clarke Crow (JVuWfraga colum&kna) in company with a troop of them while thus engaged. I heard his squawk, or chatter, above the ?, screams of the jays, and was thus led to discover him. This