356 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



August and September and then smaller as migration begins. In 

 flight the flocks are comparatively compact, but they spread widely 

 when the birds alight to feed or pass the night. During autumn and 

 winter they occupy regions essentially like those in which they breed 

 in March and April, that is, semibarren or almost denuded areas, 

 which may be natural or due to some seasonal condition of agricul- 

 ture. The Lapland longspurs and the shore larks {Otocoris alpes- 

 tris dlpestris) are the only other birds that occupy a habitat with 

 conditions just like those in which the prairie horned lark occurs in 

 fall and winter. 



Subspecies of the horned lark vary from such highly migratory 

 forms as the northern horned lark to such strictly sedentary sub- 

 species as the California horned lark. The prairie horned lark is 

 intermediate between these extremes and leaves its breeding grounds 

 for a period of one to two months during winter. This bird breeds 

 north to the southern edge of Canada and migrates south to South 

 Carolina, Kentucky, and Texas. From the northern part of this 

 range it is absent during the month of December and part or all 

 of January. Throughout the remainder of the breeding range some 

 individuals are always present. 



OTOCORIS ALPESTRIS GIRAUDI Henshaw 

 TEXAS HORNED LARK 



HABITS 



Along the coast of Texas from Galveston Bay to the mouth of the 

 Rio Grande, and for a short distance into Tamaulipas, Mexico, we 

 find this race of the horned lark, rather widely separated from its 

 nearest relatives and usually on the salt marshes or not far from 

 the seacoast. It seems to be most closely related to the prairie horned 

 lark. Dr. Oberholser (1902), in comparing it, says: "This race is 

 quite similar to praticola^ though considerably more grayish, rather 

 smaller, and with the yellow of throat usually deeper and suffusing 

 also the superciliary stripe. In winter plumage the dark streaking on 

 the breast is frequently heavier. It is fully as gray above as arcticola^ 

 but is of course easily distinguishable by its reduced size and yellow 

 of throat and eyebrow. It is so much smaller and more grayish than 

 either hoyti or alpestris that it does not need special comparison." 



W. E. Grover wrote to Major Bendire (1895) : "The Texan Honied 

 Lark is locally here known as 'Chippie' and 'Road Chippie', as it is 

 essentially a ground bird. It frequents the level, grassy prairies 

 along the Gulf shore, and may frequently be observed in the wagon 

 roads; hence its local name. I do not know how early it arrives in 

 this vicinity [Galveston] ; I noticed a few on April 1, and by May 

 they are abundant. The nest is built in a saucer-shaped hole scratched 



