108 



THE OOLOGIST. 



On May 16, '95, the first complete sets 

 of six eggs was found, and for the next 

 ten days nests were found every day, 

 though few fresh eggs were found after 

 the 20th, and only heavily incubated 

 eggs were found after May 23, some of 

 these being small sets of three and even 

 two eggs. Of the sets we took, there 

 were twenty-three sets of six, eleven 

 complete sets of five, five complete sets 

 of four, six complete sets of three 

 and in three nests we found 

 young birds recently hatched. Dead, 

 rotten willow stubs, from six to fifteen 

 feet in height, afforded the nesting sites 

 most in demand. The nests were all 

 found near Havana, 111. 



P. M. SlLLOW^AY. 



Breeding of the Prairie Horned Lark in N. 

 E. Ohio. 



On April 17th of this year I went up 

 to examine a nest which my father had 

 found the day before a little more than 

 half a mile from home. It proved to 

 be as I had concluded from the descrip- 

 tion of the birds that of the Prairie 

 Horned Lark, Olocoris alpestripraticola, 

 the first I had ever seen and probably 

 the first recorded for north-eastern 

 Ohio. 



The day before the nest contained 

 two young just batched and one egg. 

 When I visited it the remaining egg 

 had hatched. The young were clad in 

 a very long, fiuffy, dark colored down 

 which ran up the backs of their necks 

 and on the tops of their heads, giving 

 them a very quaint appearance. 



This early hatching would bring the 

 period of nidification, which must of 

 necessity from the seveiity of the sea- 

 son and simplicity of the nest, into the 

 second or third week in March at least. 

 It is interesting to note in this con- 

 nection the cold days which must have 

 intervened between the time of nidifica- 

 tion and hatching. 



The following taken from my weather 

 notes show to some extent the hardi- 

 hood of this species. 



March 20, +12°. 

 21, +8° 

 27, +21°. 



April 1, +28°. 

 " 3, +8°. 

 " 10, +29°. 

 " 11, -f20°. 



On April 22d I visited the nest to note 

 the progress; and was surprised by the 

 growth of the nestlings. I scarcely 

 recognized them. They were no long- 

 er the lean, lank, little oddities in slate 

 colored down but plump little birdies 

 pretty well thatched with yellowish- 

 brown-gray feather-sprouts. They 

 were asleep and the old birds were 

 away when I began my visit. I made 

 a squeak through my teeth and 

 straightway three little heads shot up 

 on their slender stems bursting open 

 with an internal yellowness reminding 

 me of so many suddenly bursted but- 

 tercup buds. 



Upon April 24th I visited the nest 

 again. The young had grown very 

 fast. The tail feathers were a quarter 

 of an inch long, dusky with cream- 

 brown and white mottlings, which 

 same coloration more or less strongly 

 pervaded the entire plumage. 



I am sure from examining these fledg- 

 lings that it was a young Prairie Horned 

 Lark which I found dead in April of 

 1894. 



I took the young out of the nest. 

 They tried to run oft' into the grass, 

 showing considerable muscular devel- 

 opment already. They made the clear- 

 shrill cry 'ti-eep' in answer to the same 

 cries of the distressed parents. The- 

 female in particular was worried, tum- 

 bling over l^the ground after the usual 

 manner of birds using that ruse. 



When I visited the nest on April 28- 

 the young had left— as I think on foot, 

 before they were able to fly. Possibly 

 this is a characteristic of this species ini 



