BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 235 



194 [474b] Otocoris alpestris praticola Hensh. 

 Prairie Horned Lark. 



Rare transient visitor and summer resident ; March 22 to November 9. 



In The Auk^ for January, 1904, I had the pleasure of recording the exten- 

 sion of the breeding range of this subspecies to the eastern coast of Massachu- 

 setts, and I have ventured to transcribe the note in full here. 



"On August 9, 1903, at Ipswich, Mass., Mr. Ralph Hoffmann saw two 

 adults of this species with a fully grown young bird. Two days later, on 

 August II, Mr. Thomas L. Bradlee shot, at the same place, two young birds, 

 both females, and saw three other individuals. They were near a road in 

 open fields not far from the sea. Again two days later, on August 1 3, 1 secured 

 a young male of this species that was alone on the upper edge of Ipswich 

 beach. 



The specimens secured by Mr. Bradlee were e.xamined by Dr. J. Dwight, 

 Jr., who stated in a letter to Mr. Bradlee that the birds ' were undoubtedly 

 praticola^ and 'were in juvenal plumage, moulting into first winter dress, only 

 two or three primaries and a few rectrices remaining. In this condition this 

 species (or any sparrow) does not and probably can not migrate, so I have no 

 doubt the birds were hatched near where they were found.' 



My own bird may have been from another brood, as although it was taken 

 four days later, its plumage is more juvenal, being more spotted above, and hav- 

 ing 9 juvenal rectrices and 4 juvenal primaries, against 5 rectrices and 3 prima- 

 ries in Mr. Bradlee's birds. It was taken three miles from the first station. 



The Prairie Horned Lark has been seen at Ipswich before in the fall migra- 

 tions, but this is the first time it has been found there in the breeding season. 

 At last this enterprising bird in its progress eastward has reached the sea. 

 Formerly a bird of the western prairies, it was recorded as breeding near 

 Troy, N. Y., in 1881 (Park, Bull. N. O. C, VI, 1881, p. 177). Its first 

 recorded breeding in New England was at Cornwall, Vt., in June, 1889 (C. H. 

 Parkhill, O. & O., XIV, 1889, p. 87). In 1890 specimens were secured in the 

 breeding season in Williamstown and North Adams, Mass., by Mr. Walter 

 Faxon (Faxon, Auk, IX, 1892, p. 202), and a nest and eggs were found near 

 Pittsfield by Mr, C. H. Buckingham July 10, 1892 (Brewster, Auk, XI, 1894, 

 p. 326). 



' C. W. Townsend: Auk, vol. 21, p. 81, 1904. 



