THE PACIFIC HORNED LARK. 217 



softl_v the while. At the end of every little height he pauses and hovers and 

 sends down the full voiced song. Up and up he goes, the song becoming 

 tenderer, sweeter, more refined and subtly suggestive of all a bird may seek in 

 the lofty blue. As he fades from the unaided sight I train my glasses on 

 him and still witness the heavenward spirals. I lower the glasses. Ah! I 

 have lost him now! Still there float down to us, the enraptured wife and 

 me, those most ethereal strains, sublimated past all taint of earth, beatific, 

 elysian. Ah ! surely, we have lost him ! He has gone to join the angels. 

 "Chirriquita, on the nest, we have lost him." "Never fear," she answers; 

 "Hark!" Stronger grows the dainty music once again. Stronger! Stronger! 

 Dropping r)ut of the boundless darkening blue, still by easy flights, a song for 

 every step of Jacob's ladder, our messenger is coming down. But the ladder 

 does not rest on earth. When about two hundred feet high the singer sud- 

 denly folds his wings and drops like a plummet to the ground. \Vithin the 

 last dozen feet he checks himself and lights gracefully near his nest. The 

 bird-man steals softly away to dream of love and God, and to waken on the 

 morrow of earth, refreshed. 



The Columbian Horned Lark enjoys a wide distribution thruout eastern 

 Washington during the nesting season, the only requirement of the bird being 

 open country. The convenience of water is no object, and the bird favors the 

 undifferentiated wastes of sage, rather than the cultivated fields. Elevated 

 situations are es]jecially attractive, and thousands of these Horned Larks nest 

 along barren, wind-swept ridges and on the smaller mountains where no other 

 species can be found. 



No. 89. 

 PACIFIC HORNED LARK. 



A. O. v. No. 474 g. Otocoris alpestris strigata Henshaw. 



Synonym. — Streaked Horned Lark. 



Description. — Similar to 0. alpestris but darker and much smaller, above 

 streaked broadly with black and tinged with buffy ; nape, rump and bend of wing 

 more rufescent; underparts usually more or less suffused with yellowish. Adult 

 female more strongly and handsomely marked than that of any other form. 

 Length of adult male (skins) 5.98 (52) ; wing 3.85 (98) ; tail 2.59 (65.8) ; bill 

 .44 (11. 3); tarsus .82 (20.8). 



Recognition Marks. — As in preceding; smaller, darker and more yellow 

 than other local forms. 



Nesting. — Nest and eggs as in preceding. Season: second week in May, 

 second week in June ; two broods. 



General Range. — Breeding in Pacific Coast district of Oregon, Washington 



