220 



THE PACIFIC HORNED LARK. 



Once the allentinn of the (jologist was directetl to this structure, it rose 

 from tiie plain Hke a pyramid of Cheops before his strained anxieties. It was 

 torture to have to leave it for half an hour. How could that school-ljoy pass 

 at tweutv yards and not see it ! Then, when I returned to reconnoiter, the 

 dear cattle were just being turned loose for the morning, and they, forsooth, 

 must straggle past it. At the end of another hour, unable longer to endure 

 the suspense, I returned to perform the last offices. The band of sheep was 

 out then, and they were drifting so perilously close, that I ran the last hundred 

 yards to head them off, and none too soon. Yet that precious monument of 

 simplicity held three eggs, unharmed until the advent of the man, who 

 wrought the ruin surely, in the name of — Science(?). Consistency, thou 

 art a jewel found in no egg-collector's cabinet ! 



The nest of the Pacific Horned Lark is not often concealed, but usually 

 it does not more than fill the hollow of some cavity, natural or artificial, — a 

 wheel-rut, a footprint of horse or cow, a cavity left by an upturned stone, or, 



as in one instance, the bottom of an unused 

 K'olf-hole. The only attempt at conceal- 

 ment noted was where the nest had been 

 ])laced under the fold of a large 

 strip of tar paper, most of which 

 had become tightly plastered 

 t(j the ground. 



In spite of the compara- 

 tively mild weather prevail- 

 ing in April, eggs are not 

 often laid before the second 

 week in May, and a second 

 set is deposited about the 

 second week in June. The 

 number of eggs in a set 

 varies from two to four, 

 three being most commonly 

 found. In color the ground 

 is grayish white, while dots 

 of greenish gray or reddish 

 gray are now gathered in a heavy wreath about the larger end, and now regu- 

 larly distributed over the entire surface — sometimes so heavily as to obscure 

 the ground. The eggs are often very perceptibly glossed and there is fre- 

 quently a haunting greenish or yellowish tinge which diffuses itself over the 

 whole — an atmosphere, as the artist would say. Variation in size runs from 

 ovate to elongate oval, and measurements range from .93 x .60 to .81 x .58. 

 Horned Larks owe their preservation chiefly to the wariness of the female, 



Taken near Tucoma. Photo by J. H. Bowles. 



NEST .^ND EGGS OF P.VCIFIC HORNED L.\RK. 



