544 ALATJDIDJE. 



Ad alt female in breeding-jjlumai/e. Browner than the male and 

 not so strongly washed with Tinous ; the black band on the crown not 

 so strongly defined, and the hinder crown and nape brown, strongly 

 mottled with blackish brown, the back also much more distinctly 

 marked than in the male ; the black on the throat and sides of face 

 not so strongly developed as in the male, and the white forehead 

 and throat strongly washed with yellow. Total length 6 inches, 

 culmen 0"6, wing 4"1, tail 2'5, tarsus 0'85. 



Adidts imvinter plumage. Much browner than in summer, the 

 black on the head, face, and throat entirely obscured by ashy or 

 vinous-broAvn tips to the feathers ; the throat and cheeks, forehead, 

 and eyebrow sulphur-yellow, and the white of the chest and upper 

 breast sullied with dusky tips to the feathers ; flanks much more 

 reddish brown, and not so vinous as in summer. There is a strong 

 shade of yellow not only over the white parts of the face and throat, 

 but even over the adjacent brown portions of the feathers. This 

 yellow shade gradually disappears from the eyebrow and facial 

 markings as the summer progresses and the breeding-phimage 

 becomes worn. The black bands on the crown and on the fore 

 neck are developed by the shedding of the tips to the feathers. 



Nestling (newly hatched). Covered with tufts of down of a lax 

 and feathery nature, of a pale yellow colour. 



Nestling (fully grown and able to fly). Everywhere spotted like 

 a young Game-bird on the upper surface ; the general aspect being 

 blackish, thickly covered with spots of sandy buff, mostly triangular 

 in shape ; the quills and tail-feathers distinctly edged with sandy 

 buff'; throat yellow, extending behind the ear-coverts, and showing 

 the black markings of the face of the adult ; remainder of under 

 surface of body white, tinged with yellow on the breast, the whole 

 of the fore neck, chest, and sides of body washed with sandy buff' 

 and mottled with subterminal spots of black. 



I quite agree with Mr. Henshaw that the large Horned Lark of 

 Europe cannot be separated from that of North America. He 

 thinks that there may be more than one race of the species in 

 Europe, as a specimen from Southern llussia " difl'ers markedly 

 from the 0. alpestris of Northern Eui'ope, and evidently represents 

 a large and extremely pale race." This idea is not borne out by 

 the specimens in the British Museum, an example from the Crimea 

 being absolutely similar in colour to another from Norway ; both 

 are males, and have the wing 4*2 inches in length. 



The American specimens of 0. alpestris in winter are always 

 more spotted with dull ashy on the chest, but otherwise the Euro- 

 pean and North-American examples appear to be precisely identical, 

 and, like the Shore-Lark in its breeding-haunts in Europe, the 

 specimens from Hudson's Bay and Labrador appear to gradually 

 lose the yellow on the forehead and eyebrow. As a rule the larger 

 size of the male is very apparent, and the black patch on the fore 

 neck is larger and is more distinct than in the female, it being 



