114 



L., 8.12; W., 4.00; T., 3.00. 



Nest, in a low tree. Eggs, four or five, pale blue, much spotted with reddish 

 brown. 



PINE GROSBEAK. 



Adult male. Chiefly carmine, darkest and streaked with dusky on the back, 

 fading to rose red on the upper tail coverts and breast; wings dusky with two white 

 bars; tail dusky. 



Fem.ale. Ashy gray; crown, upper tail coverts and breast more or less olive 

 yellow. 



L., 9.00; W., 4.35; T., 3.65. 



Nest, in the far north, on low coniferous trees. Eggs, four or five, pale greenish 

 blue, spotted and blotched with brown and lilac. 



EVENING GROSBEAK. 



Adult male. Forehead and line over the eye yellow, crown black, sides of head 

 olive ; upper tail coverts yellow ; tail, black ; wings, black, end half of the secondaries 

 and their coverts, white ; scapulars and belly, yellow ; bill, greenish yellow. 



Adult female. Brownish gray ; lighter and more or less tinged with yellow on 

 the under parts. 



L., 8.00; W., 4.50; T., 3.50. 



Nest, in North-West, on a low tree. Eggs, three or four, greenish, spotted with 

 brown. 



LARKS. 



PRAIRIE HORNED LARK. 



Prairie Horned Lark. These birds have become summer residents with us only 

 within the last forty years, prior to that a Horned Lark rather larger and darker 

 than the one we nowr have used to visit us in small numbers with the snow birds in 

 winter; of late this winter form has rarely been seen. The Prairie Horned Lark is 

 the first of our migrants to distribute itself through the country, usually becoming 

 abundant in the southern frontier counties early in February, when those that have 

 remained in this part of the country are joined by those that have spent the winter 

 further south, and they spread all over the cultivated parts of the Province before 

 the snow disappears. It is the first of our small birds to breed. I have several times 

 found their nests containing eggs in the first week in April, and have seen young 

 able to fly a little as early as the 15th of that month. Two or sometimes three 

 broods are raised in the season. 



These birds frequent open fields and tracts of fallow or sandy land, and feed 

 on the insects they find in such places, and on the seeds of many of our most trouble- 

 some weeds. Sometimes in the autumn I have noticed a few grains of oats among 

 their stomach contents, but never at any other season. As these larks, during their 

 stay with us, obtain nearly all their food from the cultivated lands, and that food 

 consists of just the things we are most anxious to keep in check, the services they 

 render are very valuable. 



In November the bulk of the Horned Larks leave us and go south. A good 

 many, however, remain in Southern Ontario, if the winter is not too severe, and 



