144 The Ottawa Naturalist. [February 



HORNED LARKS AT AWEME, MANITOBA. 



By Stuart and Norman Criddle. 



There are few small birds better known than the Horned Larks 

 when considered collectively, that is to say, when we merely recognize 

 them as a species without attempting to divide and distinguish them 

 as they have been separated by systematists. We are, for instance, all 

 familiar with the Prairie Horned Lark, or think we are, until its close 

 allies are placed alongside, when few indeed will be able to tell one 

 from another. The fact that these birds have been divided into so 

 many geographical races which are so alike in general appearance, 

 makes them of particular interest to students of geopraphical distri- 

 bution. The systematists have divided them and given them names. 

 It remains for the workers in ecology to confirm or reject this classifi- 

 cation by showing that there is, or is not, a difference in life habits. 

 We doubt very much, whether two distinct races will ever possess 

 identical habits and we hold that if these habits differ ever so little, 

 then there is every reason to believe that the animals possessing them 

 are distinct. A difference of a few days in the average date of arrival, 

 the selection of a different situation or kind of locality for breeding 

 purposes should be alone sufficient to demonstrate that there are two 

 races involved. We have a case in point in the local Lapland Long- 

 spur migrations. With these birds there are two very marked differ- 

 ences, both as to time of arrival and departure. W T e have never actu- 

 ally demonstrated by collecting specimens, that there are two races 

 involved, yet there can be little doubt that such is the case. Turning 

 to our Manitoba Horned Larks, we have long realized that there were 

 three or four races present, though it is only within recent times that 

 the senior writer has actually shown this to be so by the collecting of 

 examples. These specimens have been determined through the courtesy 

 of Dr. Henshaw, by Mr. Oberholser of the U. S. Biological Survey, to 

 both of whom the writers are under many obligations. 



We have, so far, been able to recognize four horned larks in the 

 vicinity of Aweme, Manitoba, namely: the Prairie Horned Lark, 

 Otocoris alpestris practicola; Oberholser's Horned Lark, O. a. enthy- 

 mia, the Pallid Horned Lark, O. a. arctica, and the Hoyt Horned 

 Lark, O. a. hoyti. Of these the first two are summer residents in the 

 neighbourhood, while the latter have only been noted as migrants. 



Prairie Horned Lark. 



This is the dominant race around the farm yard and seems to take 

 more kindly to the haunts of man than do its allies. In nature it is 

 found breeding in the vicinity of semi-wooded areas; uplands where 

 the grass is sparse and the soil sandy seem to suit it best. It is far less 

 of a true prairie bird than enthymia and while it invariably selects 



