324 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



leaves the nest to preen, bathe, and feed. The nest is usually built in 

 the open quite a way from water, often on a sloping plain or plateau, 

 and not often on the highest part of a ridge. It is placed in a cup-like 

 depression in the tundra. It is made of stalks of weeds, grasses, and 

 small leaves, lined with soft vegetable material, especially the tassels 

 of 'bog cotton,' and the plumous pappi of some of the flowering plants. 

 I did not note any 'pavements' near nests." 



A nest found by Mr. Soper (1928) "was located in low, tundra-like 

 ground, though fairly dry; was built into a small depression on the 

 side of a grassy hummock ; fashioned with a thin layer of dead grasses 

 for the walls, and lined on the bottom with white down from the dwarf 

 Arctic willow." This was discovered on June 16 in a small upland 

 valley near Nettilling Lake, Baffin Island ; it held five eggs. 



Frank L. Farley tells me that at Churchill, Manitoba, the "nests are 

 usually set deep into the tundra and well protected with the last sea- 

 son's gi'owth of grass. They are made of grasses and liberally lined 

 with ptarmigan feathers." 



Eggs. — Hoyt's horned lark lays ordinarily four or five eggs. The 

 eggs described by Bendire (1895) , as quoted under my account of the 

 northern horned lark, are, of course, referable to this race, as they 

 were taken by MacFarlane near the Anderson River, which is sup- 

 posed to be within the range of Hoyt's horned lark. The reader is re- 

 ferred to this account, which will apply equally well to most of the 

 races of Oiocoris alpestris. The measurements of 33 eggs average 23.2 

 by 16.5 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 26.7 

 by 18.8, 31.1 by 19.0, 21.6 by 16.3, and 23.6 by 15.5 millimeters. 



Young. — Dr. Sutton (1932) says: "The first newly hatched young 

 were found on July 3. The period of incubation therefore is probably 

 about thirteen or fourteen days. The young are fed by both parents 

 on insect-food, which is abundant at that season. The fully fledged 

 young go about with their parents during the rest of the season. Un- 

 less the spring is unusually early, but one brood of young is raised. 

 The young at the time of leaving the nest are in a much spotted and 

 very pretty juvenal plumage, which is completely moulted in late 

 August, apparently at about the same time the adults perform the 

 post-nuptial moult." 



The plumage changes, food, and general behavior of Hoyt's horned 

 lark are apparently similar to those of the other northern races of 

 the species. 



Dr. Sutton (1932) says that, on Southampton Island, "its principal 

 enemies are the Parasitic Jaeger, which eats the eggs and captures 

 both young and adults; the weasel, which searches the ground care- 

 fully for the nests of small birds; the Arctic Fox; the Snowy Owl, 

 which chiefly captures the young birds at the time its own young 



