354 BULLETm 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Voice. — The horned lark, like the goldfinch, usually advertises 

 itself in flight by a definite, unmistakable note. Except for an oc- 

 casional song, this is about the only sound from the birds in fall 

 and winter. The flight and call notes are several in number, some 

 of them appertaining more especially to the breeding season than 

 to wintering birds, and in that connection they will be considered 

 again. The chief stock in trade of the lark and the one most com- 

 monly heard is p-seet or merely seet. It is uttered casually on the 

 climb of the ordinary undulating flight, especially on long journeys 

 and in flights of young birds. Adults frequently make low flights 

 over the ground without uttering a note. This p-seet is occasionally, 

 sometimes frequently, lengthened to p-seet-it during the flight. 

 When flushed the note is zu-weet or zur-reet (long drawn), zeet-eet-it^ 

 or zeet-it-a-weet^ which is so high-pitched and mournful in charac- 

 ter that it makes the birds indeed a part of the winter's gale that 

 whips them away. 



The season of song extended, in the Evanston region, from mid- 

 January until early in July; in the Ithaca region from mid-Febru- 

 ary to late in June. With flight songs used for a criterion, it was 

 found that May was the optimum month. The lark sings both from 

 the ground and in the air, under all conditions of weather, though 

 flight songs are most numerous on quiet, mild days, perhaps a little 

 more numerous when the sky is overcast than when it is clear. 



The most vigorous period of song extends through nest building, 

 ^gg laying, and incubation. Perhaps of this period that portion of 

 it when the female incubates allows most song from the male, since 

 he attends the female carefully during nest building and egg laying. 

 The period of least song occurs when the young are in the nest, for 

 the male assists in feeding. Ground songs are regularly distributed 

 throughout the entire day; flight songs seem to be most numerous 

 toward noon and near sundown. 



For three months the prairie horned lark is the only singing bird 

 in the open field; but with the coming and establishment of other 

 migrants late in May and in June many other songs will be heard 

 in that region. On June 16, 1926, at Evanston, the prairie horned 

 lark, the last to begin singing that morning, went into flight song 

 at 4:00 a. m. However, the lark almost always closes the singing at 

 night with a long period of recitative which in mid-June, would 

 not close until after 8 :00 p. m. 



The literature contains several descriptions of the flight song of 

 the prairie horned lark, that of Langille (18'84) seeming to be most 

 accurate. He describes the flight. The song he describes as "gm^, 

 quit, quit^ you silly rig and get away^ This is the intermittent 

 type; nowhere in the literature has a description of the recitative 

 been found. 



