DESERT HORNED LARK 341 



squirrel away from their premises. They go after him from the air, in a series 

 of dashes ; and quite often the two birds attaclc together. 



The barbed wire fence, new in part of the region when these notes were made, 

 was a source of unexpected danger. Several carcasses of horned larks were 

 found at different times beneath wire fences. • * * 



Storms cause the greatest destruction of nestlings. Eggs and young are kept 

 dry during all ordinary rains. But in some years the destruction of nests by 

 severe and protracted storms is doubtless, over an extensive region, practically 

 total. A continuous rainstorm of three days duration, coming first from the east, 

 then from the north and finally from the northwest, killed all the nestlings 

 that were known to me. 



William G. Smith wrote to Major Bendire (1895) : "While I lived 

 in the Platte River Canyon, 40 miles west of Denver, Colorado, a ter- 

 rible snowstorm set in suddenly in April, and with it came thousands 

 of these birds, which tried to shelter themselves under projecting 

 banks. The majority were soon so chilled by the intensely cold wind 

 which was blowing at the same time, that they could not move, and 

 were quickly smothered by the drifting snow; and after this melted 

 bushels of their dead bodies could be picked up everywhere." 



Probably this horned lark is imposed upon occasionally by the cow- 

 bird, but Dr. Friedjnann (1929) cites only one authentic record; it 

 would seem as if horned larks might be frequently victimized where 

 cowbirds are common. 



Wi7iter. — After the second brood of young is strong on the wing 

 these horned larks gather into immense flocks and roam about the 

 country preparing to move southward. Many extend their winter 

 range into the more arid regions of our southern border States and 

 even into Mexico. But through a large portion of its range this race 

 is largely resident and is found less commonly as far north as Montana 

 in winter. It is common in winter at least as far north as Wyoming. 

 In Colorado, it is very abundant in winter, traveling about in enormous 

 flocks in company with some of the other subspecies. "When the ground 

 is bare the flocks spread out over the plains and fields, but when the 

 snow covers their feeding grounds they congregate about the ranches 

 and farmyards to feed on the waste grain or come into the towns and 

 cities to be fed by the residents ; sometimes in severe weather thousands 

 of the birds come into the towns, where people feed them regularly 

 on millet and other seeds, scattered on bare spaces, where the birds 

 often gather so thickly as to almost cover the ground. 



Claude T. Barnes writes to me from Utah: "Though the day be 

 cold and drear, and all vegetation well nigh covered with snow, in the 

 fields west of Salt Lake City, flocks of pretty horned larks are daily 

 seen feeding on the seeds of the pigweed, saltbush, ragweed, amaranth, 

 and other noxious weeds, which here and there protrude through the 

 snow. If the snow becomes too deep for them, they even venture 

 into the city." 



324726 — 42 23 



