SCORCHED HORNED LARK 369 



the valley of the San Pedro River; these plains are much like virgin 

 prairies, pure grass lands, entirely devoid of other vegetation except 

 for the straggling lines of cottonwoods, sycamores, and willows that 

 mark the underground courses of the mountain streams that flow 

 out from the canyons onto the plains at a few points, but they are 

 hardly in sufficient numbers to make any appreciable break in the 

 continuity of the prairies. These grassy plains form the best graz- 

 ing lands in that region, but the cattle need vast areas of land to 

 support them even here, and water must be provided for them from 

 driven wells, windmills, and watering tanks, to which the cattle 

 resort from miles around. 



Here was the typical home of the scorched horned lark, as we 

 found it abundant and apparently breeding in 1922, though we did 

 not succeed in finding a nest. Similar plains extend westward for 

 a long distance from the Cliiricahua Mountains to the eastward, and 

 as far north as Wilcox in Cochise County, where J. S. Rowley tells 

 me that he found it breeding "rather abundantly." A. J. van Rossem 

 (1936) says that it "does not reach its western limit at the Santa 

 Ritas, but continues west along the mesa lands to, and all along, the 

 east base of the Baboquivaris." Between this latter range, in Pima 

 County, and the valley of the Colorado River there seem to be no 

 suitable breeding grounds for horned larks, as they shun even a 

 scanty growth of bushes or the ordinary desert vegetation. 



In naming this race. Dr. Dwight (1890) describes it as "similar 

 to chrysolnema [which he then included with what we now call 

 actio], but of a uniform scorched pink or vinaceous-cinnamon above." 



Nesting. — Mr. Rowley writes to me that, on the plains near Wilcox 

 on May 24, 1936, he found these birds flying about and mating and 

 located a nest in process of construction, "the female doing a lot of 

 fussing around with a blade of grass in her bill." Five days later, 

 the nest contained three fresh eggs, and the female was sitting very 

 closely. "The bird did her best to use what shelter was available by 

 excavating under the side of a dried cow dung, to get even a little 

 relief from the hot sun." 



There is a nest of this homed lark in the Thayer collection in 

 Cambridge that was collected by O. W. Howard in Cochise County, 

 Ariz., on June 10, 1902, and held three eggs. It was placed at the 

 edge of a tuft of grass and was made entirely of very fine grasses, 

 mixed with pappus down; in its somewhat flattened condition, it 

 measures nearly 4 inches in outside diameter. 



Eggs. — Apparently the usual set consists of three eggs. The three 

 eggs in the Thayer collection are elliptical-oval and have very little 

 gloss. The ground color is dull white, and the eggs are finely and 

 lightly dotted and spotted over the entire surface with very pale 



