280 Birds of Colorado 



268 ; Henderson 03, p. 235 ; 09, p. 233 ; Dille 03, p. 74 ; Warren 04, 

 p. 6 ; 06, p. 6 ; 08, p. 21 ; 09, p. 15 ; McAttie 05, p. 1 ; Markman 07, 

 p. 157 ; Oilman 07, p. 155. 



Description. — Male in breeding dress ; above sandy-brown, streaked 

 with darker, becoming pinkish on the occiput and hind-neck ; top of 

 the head black, prolonged back into two points slightly erectile above 

 the ears ; forehead and eyebrows white or very pale yellow ; malar 

 stripe below the eye and band across the chest black ; throat very 

 pale yellow ; below white, slightly soiled, tinged with vinaceous on 

 the sides of the breast and flanks. Length G-0 ; wing 4-10 ; tail 2-7 ; 



culmen -42 ; tarsus -75. 



In winter the males as a rule are brighter yellow on the throat and 

 forehead, and the black is dulled by the paler tips to the feathers of 

 those parts ; by the wear of these tips the breeding plumage is acquired. 



The female is smaller than the male — wing 3-75, and has, as a rule, 

 little or no trace of the black head -mark, while the malar and breast 

 stripes are much less conspicuous ; the back is brown, streaked from 

 the vertex to the rump, and there is no pink nape area. A female killed 

 in August, probably a young bird after the first moult, has the breast 

 mark quite concealed by the paler tips of the feathers, while below 

 this is a pale bufiy-brown area across the lower breast. Above, it Is 

 brown throughout, streaked with darker, and more richly coloured 

 than the winter female. A nestling is pale buffy above, conspicuously 

 spotted with white. 



Distribution. — Breeding in the great plains and Rocky ]\Iountain 

 region of the western United States, from western Kansas and Nebraska 

 north to Alberta, west to Nevada, and south to western Texas, both 

 on the plains and in the mountains, wintering in Colorado and south- 

 wards perhaps to northern Mexico and south-eastern California. 



In eastern Colorado this little bird is one of the most common resident 

 species throughout the year. During the winter it is to be met with all 

 over the eastern half of the State, very commonly on the open prairie, 

 and it extends up into the lower parks (recorded by Drew in Baker's 

 Park, San Juan co., at about 9,500 feet in winter ; by Tresz at Fairplay 

 in December, and by Warren, near Mosca, in January). In summer it 

 moves up more freely into the mountains, and is foiuid everywhere in 

 suitable localities up to timber line (Bergin Park, above timber line, 

 Trippe ; timber line, near Crested Bute, Warren), as well as in the eastern 

 plains. In Mesa co. on the western slope, it is more common in winter 

 than in summer, and Rockwell believes that the winter birds go north 

 to breed. 



Habits. — The Horned Lark is found on the open tree- 

 less plains and on high mesas, often far away from 



