NORTHERN HORNED LARK 329 



tint is perceptible, which fades out in time. The entire surface of the egg 

 is profusely blotched and sprinkled with different shades of pale brown. In 

 some specimens the markings are bold and well defined; in others they are 

 minute, giving the egg a pepper-and-salt appearance ; and again they are almost 

 confluent, causing a uniform neutral brownish appearance. In some specimens 

 the markings are heavier and become confluent about the larger axis of the 

 egg, forming a wreath and leaving the ground color on the smaller end of the 

 egg plainly visible; in fact, there appears to be an endless variation in color 

 and markings as well as in size among these eggs and scarcely any two sets 

 are exactly alike. 



The measurements of 29 eggs of the northern horned lark average 

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

 24.1 by 16.5, 24.0 by 17.4, 21.3 by 16.8, and 23.5 by 15.5 millimeters. 



Young. — Audubon (1840) writes: 



The young leave the nest before they are able to fly, and follow their parents 

 over the moss, where they are fed about a week. They run nimbly, emit a 

 soft peep, and squat closely at the first appearance of danger. If observed and 

 pursued, they open their wings to aid them in their escape, and separating, 

 make off with great celerity. On such occasions it is difficult to secure more 

 than one of them, unless several persons be present, when each can pursue 

 a bird. * * * By the first of August many of the young are fully fledged, 

 and the different broods are seen associating together, to the number of forty, 

 fifty, or more. They now gradually remove to the islands of the coast, where 

 they remain until their departure, which takes place in the beginning of Sep- 

 tember. They start at the dawn of day, proceed on their way south at a small 

 elevation above the water, and fly in so straggling a manner, that they can 

 scarcely be said to move in flocks. 



Plumages. — The nest found by Townsend and Allen (1907) "con- 

 tained three dark-skinned young, clothed sparingly in sulphur-yellow 

 down." The juvenal plumage, which is acquired before the young 

 bird leaves the nest and is alike in both sexes, is a fine example of 

 concealing coloration, for it blends in so well with the surroimding 

 lichens and mosses as to make the bird almost invisible in its open 

 and unprotected nest. The crown is dark brown, almost black, and 

 spotted with brownish white ; the back is slightly lighter brown, mixed 

 with dusky, and each feather is tipped with a spot of yellowish white, 

 giving the whole upper surface a conspicuously spotted effect ; there 

 is a subterminal black bar on each of the scapulars with a broad 

 terminal margin of yellowish white ; the lesser and median wing coverts 

 have large terminal spots of yellowish white ; the greater wing coverts 

 and remiges are margined with brownish buff; a superciliary stripe 

 and a spot below the eye are pale yellow, as are the chin and throat, 

 this color extending up the sides of the neck almost to the superciliary 

 stripe; the chest is pale brownish buff, spatted with dusky; the rest 

 of the under parts are very pale yellow or yellowish white. 



A complete postjuvenal molt late in summer, mainly in August, pro- 

 duces a first winter plumage, in which the sexes are different. Dr. 



