STREAKED HORNED LARK 357 



out by the birds, and here it is nearly always placed alongside of 

 bunches of wild chamomile {Matricaria coronata) growing close to the 

 road; it is constructed of dry prairie grass and lined with thistle down. 

 The top of the nest is even with the surrounding ground." 



Bendire goes on to say : "All the nests of the Texan Horned Lark I 

 have seen are much more substantially built than any of the balance 

 of the subspecies breeding within the United States." He says of an 

 unusually bulky one: "It was placed in a pile of dry cow droppings 

 near the shore of Aransas Bay. The outer walls are chiefly con- 

 structed of salt-cedar twigs {Monanthochloe Utt oralis) , and the lining 

 consists of dry sea moss picked up on the shore. It measures 6 inches 

 in outer diameter by 2i^ inches in height. The inner cup is 3 inches in 

 width by 2 inches in depth." An average nest is only about 4 inches in 

 outside diameter, "and it is sparingly lined with blades of dry grass, 

 and a few feathers." 



The Texas horned lark lays ordinarily three or four eggs, which are 

 practically indistinguishable from those of other horned larks of 

 similar size. The measurements of 40 eggs average 21.5 by 15.7 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 23.4 by 16.0, 22.6 

 by 16.6, 19.7 by 15.3, and 21.2 by 14.9 millimeters. 



OTOCORIS ALPESTRIS STRIGATA Henshaw 



STREAKED HORNED LARK 



HABITS 



The above name applies to the horned larks that breed in the Pacific 

 coast belt of "Washington and Oregon, west of the Cascade Mountains, 

 and southward to Siskiyou County, Calif. 



Dr. Oberholser (1902) writes: "This race differs from riiemlli in 

 much smaller size, deeper and more extended yellow suffusion below, 

 and in the decidedly more brownish color of the upper parts. In au- 

 tumn and winter, when men-illi is often brownish above and shows 

 sometimes as much yellow below as strigata^ size is the best means of 

 identification. In color it much resembles alpestris^ but in summer the 

 back is more blackish, in winter the yellow suffusion is more extensive, 

 while its smaller size will of course distinguish it at all seasons. It 

 differs from hoyti as from alpestris^ with the additional character of a 

 deep yellow eyebrow." 



Wliile I was in Seattle, in 1911, Samuel F. Rathbun showed me the 

 breeding grounds of the streaked horned lark, of which he says in his 

 notes: "Almost invariably this lark frequents what are known as 

 gravelly prairies. The gravelly prairies are distinctive. They are of 

 rather limited extent, and have a soil that is mostly of fine, smoothly 

 worn gravel, which at times represents the greater part of the soil. In 

 spring and early summer these prairies are strewn with wild flowers, 



324726—42 24 



