ALAUDID^ EREMOPHILA ALPESTRIS, HORNED LARK. 37 



Tbongli inhabiting' tlie same situations as the preceding species, the 

 Short-billed Marsh Wren is not only much rarer, but much more re- 

 stricted geographically. It occurs along the whole Atlantic coast, from 

 Florida to Massachusetts, beyond which I have observed no record, but 

 according to my experience it is nowhere abundant along this line. In 

 the course of several years collecting in Maryland, Virginia, and the 

 Carolinas, I never happened to find but a single specimen, which I shot 

 in October, in a marsh on the North Carolina coast, where the other 

 species was abundant at the time. According to various authors, the 

 bird is more common in Massachusetts during the summer, arriving: 

 about the second week in May, and leaving in October. I think the 

 birds are more plentilul along an interior line of migration, up the Mis- 

 sissippi. Thus Mr. Trippe found them "abundant" and breeding in 

 Minnesota, and I sav,- them in comparative j^lenty along the Red River, 

 about Pembina, securing several examples in June. I found them in 

 reedy sloughs on the prairie, where the Yellow-headed Blackbirds and 

 Blacic Terns were breeding, and also in low sedgy tracts, partly covered 

 with a growth of scrubby willows. Dr. Hayden's specimen is interest- 

 ing as being the westernmost on record for the United States. Audu- 

 bon found the species abundant in Texas, where it breeds. 



Quite contrary to what might have been expected, the eggs of this 

 species are entirely unlike those of its allies, being pure white, unmarked. 

 They measure 0.G3 by 0. 18, being thus rather elongate. I never saw a 

 nest ; it is said to be similar to that of the Long-billed Wren — a hollow 

 globe with a hole in one side, woven of grasses, reeds or rushes, lined 

 with finer material of the same kind, and placed in a tuft of reeds or 

 tussock of grass. According to Mr. Maynard, the birds are quite noisy in 

 the fresh-water marshes of Massachusetts, frequently' singing all night: 

 "Their notes are not fine, but, although monotonous, are more elaborate 

 than those of the Long-billed, and better entitled to the name of song." 



Family ALAUDID.E : Larks. 



The birds of this family ditfcr remarkably from other O-schies in the strnctiire of the 

 tarsal envelope, which, instead of eonsistin;f ou the sides of the tarsns of two nudi- 

 vided plates meeting in a sharp ridge behind, is there formed of a series of scntelhB 

 like those in front, lapping round behind, meeting those of the front in a groove on 

 both inner and outer faces of the tarsus. The back of the tarsus is therefore blunt and 

 rounded in the front. Notwithstanding this peculiarity, they are truly 0-scinc, having 

 tlic musical apparatus well developed, and being good songsters. The tarsal envelope, 

 while ai)proacl)ing that of the Clcnnatorial birds in character, is not, however, the same 

 as in these, in which a single series of plates, variously arranged, encircles the tarsus, 

 meeting in a groove along the inner face, but being continuous ou the outer. In the 

 Larks, the hind claw is elongated and straightened conformably with their terrestrial 

 habits ; the bill is conic-elongate, and there are but nine fully-developed primaries. In 

 the genus Ercmophiia there is a peculiar tuft of feathers springing from each side of the 

 head back of the eye, somewhat similar in character to the so-called "horns"' of many 

 owls. Th(i species inhabit open grounds, and are gregarious and extensively migratory 

 in most regions. Their tood consists of various seeds and insects. We have but a sin- 

 gle species, identical with that of the Old World ; but it runs into several geographical 

 varieties. 



EREMOPHILA ALPESTRIS, (Forst.) Boie. 



Horned lark ; Shore lark. 



a. alpestris. 



AJaiula alpi'sirit, Fokst., Phil. Trans. Ixii. 1772, 398.— Lixx., 1^. N. i, 17r>C., 2^0.— Gm., S. 

 N. i, 17ti8, 800.— L.vxn., Ind. Oru. ii, 1700, 4U8.— And of earlier authors geuer- 



