358 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



but when the flowers disappear the prairies look more like sterile 

 areas." 



J. H. Bowles (1900) says that "around Tacoma these little larks are 

 extremely local in their distribution, large areas of prairie being alto- 

 gether untenanted, while an exactly similar piece of land will be 

 swarming with them." They nest commonly on the grounds of the 

 Tacoma Golf Club. "The surrounding prairie extends for miles where 

 hardly a dozen pairs of the birds can be found in a day's walk, while 

 on the links last summer I estimated that fully one hundred pairs must 

 have nested. Indeed, so sociable are they that only an occasional nest 

 is placed more than a few feet from the 'putting green' or the 'tee-off'." 



Nesting. — Mr. Bowles (1900) says : "The location of the nest may be 

 almost anywhere on the ground, but the soil must be extremely dry. 

 As a rule the birds scratch out a hole for themselves about two and 

 one-half or three inches deep, both birds working, but I have found 

 nests in the hoof prints of cattle, in cart ruts, holes made by dislodged 

 stones and one that was placed in an unused golf hole." One very 

 large nest was "well lined with grass, fir needles and feathers." 



Mr. Rathbun (MS.) says of several nests that he has found: "Each 

 time it was in a slight depression of the ground on the dry, open 

 prairie, oftener close to the edge of a dried cow dung, and just within 

 or against the growth of grass, which would be more dense in such a 

 spot. A nest found in very early June was made of dry, gray mosses, 

 bits of dead weed stalks, dead grasses, with various soft substances of 

 - "nlant kind, and it was neatly lined with fine, dry grasses. Its dimen- 

 sions were: Outside diameter, 4 inches; inside diameter, 21/^ inches; 

 height, 2 inches ; depth, ll^ inches." 



Eggs. — Three or four eggs constitute the usual set for the streaked 

 horned lark. These are practically indistinguishable from those of 

 other horned larks of similar size, with the usual variations. The 

 measurements of 32 eggs average 21.0 by 15.8 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 23.4 by 16.9, 19.0 by 15.7, and 20.0 

 by 14.9 millimeters. 



Enemies. — Mr. Rathbun writes to me that the "crows used to pester 

 the breeding larks, for the grass was so short when and where these 

 were nesting that many a nest was broken up by the crows. Several 

 times I watched the black rascals carefully working over the nesting 

 areas, and I found the torn nests and now and then an eggshell." 



OTOCORIS ALPESTRIS MERRILLI Dwight 



DUSKY HORNED LARK 



HABITS 



In naming this race in honor of Dr. J. C. Merrill, who collected 

 the type near Fort Klamath, Oreg., Dr, Dwight (1890) described it 



