6. OTOCOETS. 529 



Mr. W. H. Henshaw has given in the ' Auk ' for 1884 an elaborate 

 review of the Horned Larks of the Xew World, and has divided them 

 into eight races (vol. i. pp. 254-268). Mr. Eidgway in his 

 ' Manual ' (pp. 348, 349) has also tabulated these same races and 

 adopted Mr. Henshaw's conclusions. Thanks to the liberality of 

 Mr. Godman, the whole of Mr. Henshaw's series of these birds has 

 been acquired for the Salvin-Godman collection and now forms part 

 of the British-Museum collection, so that I have had the inestimable 

 advantage of studying the very specimens on which Mr. Henshaw 

 and Mr. Kidgway founded the bulk of their conclusions. Anything 

 more puzzling than these races of Horned Larks it has never been 

 my lot to describe. The differences between 0. alpestris and 

 0. ruhea are as well marked as could be wished, but between 

 these two extreme fonns are interposed a number of races which 

 seem absolutely to connect them, and both the above-named 

 American authors admit that these connecting-links actually exist. 



To unite all the races under the heading of 0. alpestris would be 

 to obscure the existence of several highly interesting geographical 

 forms, and I have therefore thought it best to recognize the races 

 determined by Mr. Henshaw and confirmed by Mr. Ridgway, with 

 certain notes of my own upon the series now lying before me. 



I have drawn my characters from specimens in autumn and winter 

 plumage, as the Horned Larks are birds which gain their breeding- 

 plumage by the shedding of the light tips to the feathers, and 

 therefore the autumn plumage is the most perfect before the 

 feathers become abraded. 



In summer plumage the races are still more difficult to distinguish, 

 and size is the best test of identification. The yellow on the fore- 

 head and eyebrow becomes oblitei'ated in nearly every species, even 

 in 0. alpestris. Two groups can be recognized when a series of all 

 the species is available for comparison. The large 0. alpestris 

 is the type of one section, with pale primrose-yellow throat, 0. leu- 

 colama being a western white-throated representative, and 0. pra- 

 ticola and 0. arenicola being more southern resident forms. In the 

 ''■ruhca " group the size is constantly smaller, the colours in stronger 

 contrast, the vinous colour more richly indicated and even inclining 

 to chestnut, while the yellow of the throat is richer in colour. AU 

 the southern races, however, are very difficult to define, and they 

 seem to run one into the other. 



Key to the Species. 



a. No yellow on the chest. 



«'. Eyebrow white ; forehead also white. 



a". Cheeks white ; throat white or with a faint 

 tinge of yellow. 

 a'" . Back perfectly uniform or with slender 

 streaks of black. 

 u^. Black threat-band united to the black [jie/iicillata, p. 530. 



ear-coverts • < bicvrnis, p. 532, 



[ pallida, p. 533. 

 VOL, XIII. 2 If 



