408 MIClIKiAN J51HI) J.IKE. 



E. A. Mcllheii}^ took several nests with eggs in Labrador in 1S94, but all 

 his collections were lost by the foundering of the steamer Miranda in which 

 he was returning from Greenland. 



TKCHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill shorter than head, conical, acute, without trace of notch or hook; claw of hind toe 

 straight and much elongated, as long as or longer than the toe itself; two conspicuous 

 little feather-horns or ear-tufts at the side of the crown. 



Adult male: Upper parts dark pinkish brown, brightest and clearest on the nape, 

 shoulders, rvunp and u[)per tail-coverts, the back and scapulars more grayish and heavily 

 streaked with brown; forehead, line over the eye, part of the auriculars, chin and throat, 

 rather bright sulphur yellow; front of crown, ear-tufts, lores, line under eye, cheeks and a 

 broad crescent on the chest, black; lower breast whitish, shaded at the sides with pinkish 

 brown and usually more or less streaked with dusky; belly and under tail-coverts white; 

 primaries brownish, darker at the tip; middle pair of tail-feathers grayish like the back, 

 the others black, the outer vane of the outer pair edged with white; bill bluish black or 

 horn color; iris brown. 



Adult female: Similar, but smaller, grayer, duller and more streaked. 



Male: Length 7.50 to 8 inches; wing 4.20 to 4.60; tail 2.70 to 3.10; culmen .40 to .50. 

 Female: Length G.75 to 7.25; wing 3.95 to 4.55; tail 2.50 to 3.10. 



188. Prairie Horned Lark. Otocoris alpestris praticola Henshaw. (474b) 



Synonyms: Lesser Horned Lark, Summer Horned Lark, Prairie Lark, Yellowthroat. — 

 Otocoris alpestris praticola, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886, and all recent authors. 



Figures 96 and 97. 



For distinctive marks see notes under preceding species. 



Distribution. — Upper Mississippi Valley and the region of the Great 

 Lakes to New England, breeding eastward to northeastern New York 

 and western Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and migrating 

 south to South Carolina, Texas, etc. 



The Prairie Horned Lark occasionally remains through the winter in 

 southern Michigan, but ordinarily is entirely absent from the state during 

 December and January, arriving from the south as 

 soon as the snow begins to disappear, usually in 

 February, sometimes not until the first of March. 

 It is said to arrive in large flocks, but if so these soon 

 break up and the birds are found singly, in pairs, or 

 in small parties of three to ten. In the late fall it is ^ yy 



sometimes seen in flocks of fifty or one hundred, ^^ ^^ 



and at that season probably associates with the iiead of Prairie Horned 

 northern species, alpestris. It is our earliest passerine ^^^^' 



bird to nest, and frequently eggs are found before the middle of March 

 and Avhile snow still covers most of the ground. The birds begin to sing 

 or twitter immediately on their appearance, and if not already paired 

 soon select mates and begin nesting. Probably two broods are reared 

 always, and sometimes three, while a few observers claim that a fourth 

 brood is sometimes raised. It seems likely that a large proportion of the 

 earlier nests are covered by snow and abandoned, since young Horned 

 Larks are rarely seen before May, and they are much more abundant in 

 June and July. The writer found young just ready to fly at Gaylord, 



