NORTHERN HORNED LARK 331 



Cottam and Hanson (1938) have published a paper on the food 

 of some Arctic birds, in which they give the results of the examina- 

 tion of three stomachs of this lark, taken at Indian Harbor, Labrador, 

 in July. This shows what a large percentage of the summer food 

 consisted of insects. They say : 



Adult and larval Lepidoptera were consumed in numbers by each bird and 

 averaged more than a fourth (27.33 per cent) of the entire amount consumed. 

 These included the genus Agrotis sp. and undetermined Geometridae and Noc- 

 tuidae. Large ants (Camponotus sp.) were next in the order of importance 

 of the animal foods, averaging 7 per cent of the total. Other hymenopterous 

 material, including ichneumon wasps, added another 5.67 per cent. A num- 

 ber of dipterous forms were next in order with 4.33 per cent, followed by spiders 

 with 3.33 per cent. Leaf-hoppers, aphids, and other true bugs supplied 2.67 

 per cent, while moUusks, mostly a small Mytilus cdulis, made up the remain- 

 ing 1.67 per cent animal food, making an aggregate of 52 per cent. 



Of the 4S per cent vegetable material, 31.67 per cent consisted of fruits and 

 seeds of the bog bilberry {Vaccinimn ulig'mosum) , while the remaining consisted 

 of cyperaceous seeds and undetermined vegetable debris. 



"While with us in winter the food must consist almost wholly of 

 seeds, such as waste grain in the stubblefields, the seeds of forage 

 plants in the fields, the seeds of eel grass, sedges, wild oats and mal- 

 lows along our coasts, various grass seeds, and the seeds of ragweed 

 and a host of other weeds. Probably some dried fruits or berries are 

 eaten, and perhaps some insects in their dormant winter stages. 



Most of its food is apparently picked up from the ground, where 

 it spends most of its time walking nimbly along among the stubble, 

 in the short grass or over the salt marshes. Dr. Townsend (1905) 

 says: "It picks at the grass-stalks from the gi'ound, never alighting 

 on them as do the snow buntings and longspurs. It sometimes flies 

 up from the ground, seizing the seeds on the tall grass or weed- 

 stalks, at the same time shaking man}" off onto the ground, which it 

 picks up before flying up to repeat the process. Horned larks are 

 frequently found in roads picking at the horse-droppings, especially 

 when much snow has covered the grasses and weeds. They also 

 come into the farm-yards for scraps of food." 



Behavior. — ^As we see them in winter northern horned larks are 

 decidedly gregarious, occurring in flocks that range in size from half 

 a dozen to a hundred or more birds; they are seldom seen singly or 

 in pairs as in their summer haunts. As we walk across some flat 

 salt marsh near the shore, or some bare stubblefield farther inland, 

 we may be surprised to see a flock of these birds arise from the 

 ground, where their quiet movements and concealing coloration had 

 rendered them almost invisible. They rise all together, and we hear 

 their faint sibilant twittering as they circle about, now high in the 

 air in scattered formation, now close to the ground in more compact 

 order, showing a bright glimmer of white breasts as they wheel away 



