506 



S YS TEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. — PA S SERES — OSCINES. 



from nostrils along lores, thence curving below eye and widening as it descends in front of 

 auriculars, black ; remainder of sides of head and whole throat sulphury-yellow. Bill 

 plumbeous-blackish, bluish-plumbeous at base below (sometimes there yellowish); feet and 

 claws black; iris brown. Length of ^ 7.00-7.50; extent 13.00-14.00; wing 4.2r)-4.o0; tail 

 2.75-3.00; bill, from extreme base of culnien, 0.40-0.50; tarsus 0.88-0.90; middle toe and 

 claw rather less; hind claw about 0..50, usually longer than its digit, but very variable. 9 

 duller and smaller than ^ ; length 0.75-7.25; extent 12.75-13.25; wing about 4.00, etc. 

 Adult (^ 9 , in winter : As usually seen iu most of the United States in fall, winter, and early 

 spring, differ from the above in more sordid coloration of the upper parts, which may be simply 

 grayish-brown, heavily streaked with dusky, even on the crown, with little or none of the 

 pinkish tints ; and in lack or restriction of the black markings of the head and breast, or their 

 being veiled with whitish tips of the individual feathers; nevertheless the sulphury tinge of the 

 white parts about the head is usually very conspicuous. Fledglings have the ujjper parts 

 dusky, mixed with some yellowish-brown, and sprinkled all over with whitish or light tawny 

 dots, each feather having a terminal speck. Most of the wing- and tail-feathers have rusty, 

 tawny, or whitish edging and tipping. The under parts are white, mottled with the colors of 

 the upper parts along sides and across back ; no traces of definite black markings about head 

 and breast, nor any yellow tinge. Bill and feet pale or yellowish. This peculiar speckled 

 stage is of brief duration ; with an early autumnal change, a dress little if at all different from 

 that of the adults in winter is acquired. Nesting of this species, or some of its subspecies, 

 begins very early iu April, or even in March, sometimes before the snow is gone, and fre- 

 quently other broods are reared through the summer; nest of grasses, etc., sunken in the 

 ground ; eggs 3-5, 0.90-1.05 X 0.60-0.75, usually about 0.95-0.70, very variable in tone, but 

 always profusely and heavily marked with brownish -gray or dark stone-gray upon a grayish 

 or greenish-white ground ; in some cases the whole surface nearly uniform. Northern Hemi- 

 sphere at large; the typical form, identical with alpestvis of Europe, etc., breeds beyond 

 U. S. in easterly parts of British America, as the region about Hudson's Bay, and abun- 

 dantly in Labrador; also Green- 

 land ; common in flocks in the 

 E. U. S. in winter S. to the 

 Carolinas and Illinois, or about 

 lat. 35°; replaced in the West 

 by the following varieties : 

 O. a. pratic'ola. (Lat. an in- 

 habitant of prat urn, a meadow; 

 Colo, I inhabit or cultivate. Fig. 

 341.) Prairie Hdrxeu Lark. 

 First and least departure from 

 alpestris typica ; nape, rump, 

 and lesser wing-coverts vina- 

 ceous, as before, but not so dark, 

 and back flat gray, in contrast ; 

 yellow of throat pale, reduced 

 <ir even wanting; white over 

 eye ; smaller ; $ wing 4.20 or 

 less. Breeding range along the 

 northern tier of States, from 



Fig 341. -Prairie Honied Lark. (L. A. Fuertes.) the Valley of the Red Rivcr of 



the North in E. Dakota, Upper Mississippi Valley, region of the Great Lakes, and adjoinin<: 

 5, to New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts; in migration 



British Province; 



