PRAIRIE HORNED LARK 353 



Grain, chiefly waste oats, corn, and wheat, formed 12.2 percent of the 

 food of larks, exchisive of California forms, and much of this would 

 have been taken in the period under consideration. 



The Main Subdivision at Evanston, where the most extensive ob- 

 servations were made by the writer, had, in the winter of 1925-26, 

 great quantities of Agropyron repens (quack gi-ass), Setana (fox- 

 tail), and Amaranthus (pigweed), all of w^hich had been allowed to 

 mature seeds. Of this the seeds of the quack grass were eaten first 

 and wherever their long stems had fallen over the sidewalks the larks 

 would invariably be found in January and February. When quack 

 grass failed, foxtail was eaten, and lastly Amaranthms was substituted 

 when no other seeds were available. Once or twice larks were noted 

 along the roads feeding on the oats of horse droppings, when snow 

 covered all the weed seed of the subdivision. And again at Ithaca the 

 compost heaps, put out for fertilizer along the garden margins, 

 supplied some food when snow lay deeply over the ground. 



At Ithaca, during the spring of 1928, prairie horned larks were 

 observed feeding on Setaria (March 1), on Ambrosia artemisiaefolia 

 (April 1). A pair of larks were frightened away from an arctiid moth 

 larva {Apantesis arge)^ which I observed the female dig up (March 

 3). Finally a few adults were collected in March at Ithaca (Con- 

 necticut Hill), and examination of the stomachs of six individuals 

 showed that the vegetation consisted of oats, Setaria^ Ambrosia 

 artemiside folia, and waste buckwheat. 



In summary of the feeding habits of the prairie horned lark in 

 autumn, winter, and early spring, all that need be said is that the 

 bulk of food taken is that of weed seeds, and the animal food, a much 

 smaller proportion, is almost entirely of those forms harmful to the 

 agriculturist. The lark, in feeding habits, finds for his food those 

 things that appertain to the waste lands he inhabits. 



Behavior. — Breeding birds, such as females in abandonment con- 

 cealment of the nest, or males in flight song, exhibit several distinct 

 flights, but at other seasons the flight is of but one definite charac- 

 ter. This is a choppy undulation brought about by three or four 

 rapid, even strokes of the wings interrupted by the space of about 

 two beats during which the wings are closed. A note is uttered on 

 the climb of each undulation. Or again, on prolonged flights, the 

 character of the wing beat is as follows: Long strokes are made, 

 one, two, three (or one, two), with a pause of about one wing beat 

 between each stroke wherein the wings are folded. Then come four to 

 six rapid and successive strokes, which cause a climb. At this time 

 the note zeet-it is uttered. Then comes a pause of the length of one 

 or two beats, with wings folded, causing a drop in elevation. These 

 repeat. The bird goes thus: jump, jump, jump, climb (call also), 

 drop, jump, jump, jump. 



