1890.] KEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 129 



regions down into Mexico and even as far south as the United 

 States of Colombia. They are now considered to be all of one 

 species, divided into a number of sub-species, also called geo- 

 graphical races or varieties, wiiich intergrade one with another, 

 but are distinguishable by size and coloration, these conditions 

 being imposed by climatic influences upon birds inhabiting dif- 

 ferent areas. These differences, which are observable in many 

 other groups, may be summed up, in a general way, as paleness 

 in birds of desert or boreal regions, and darker, brighter colors 

 in birds of southern regions or those of heavy rainfall; greater 

 size in birds of Arctic distribution, and less size in birds of 

 southern latitudes; but there are often combinations of alti- 

 tude (which corresponds to Arctic distribution) and of local 

 desert or forest influences, which tend to confuse the general 

 principle just enunciated. 



It is not many years since birds obtained in different parts of 

 our country were described as distinct species; these have since 

 been found to be simply geographical races of the same species. 

 Connecting links have been obtained from intermediate areas, 

 and the chain is complete, no matter how much the ends may 

 differ. "We have such a chain in the horned larks. How this 

 came to be gradually recognized may be best shown by a brief 

 history of the species. 



In 1881, the name "Lark," applied by Catesby to the bird 

 found in the Carolinas, was the first of a long list of names, 

 both scientific and vernacular, applied by later writers to this 

 species, which can boast of as many synonyms as almost any 

 other of the unfortunate s])ecies that have received like treat- 

 ment at the hands of jn'ofessional and unprofessional ornitholo- 

 gists. In 1758, Linnaeus gave to Catesby's "Lark" the name 

 Alaiula alpestris, the first binomial applied to the bird. In 

 1828, Boie separated the genus Eremophila from Alauda (the 

 true skylark), and our bird became Eremophila alpestris. In 

 1839. Bonaparte substituted the name Olocoris alpestris {Ere- 

 mophila being preoccupieil), under which name was included 

 the bird inhabiting the northern ])arts of the Old World as well 

 as nearly all Xorth America. This is the name in use to-day, 

 although many others have had more or less currency. In 

 1858, Baird referred all the North American horned larks to the 

 species cornuta, ranking chrysolwma, which was described in 

 1831 as a species by Wagler, as a sub-species. Here we have the 

 entering wedge of trinomialism among the birds ; and the sub- 

 species leucohenia was added by Coues in 1874, at a time when 

 the propriety of indicating geographical races by the addition of 

 a sub-specific or third name had become almost a necessity in 

 ornithology. The scientists of our great country have recog- 



