THE IfORXED LARK. "S^^ 



side. The strong wiry grass of the tussock is also interwoven 

 witli finer materials, making the whole impervious to the 

 weather. The inner nest is composed of grasses and finer 

 sedges, and lined with ^-the linty fibres of the silk-weed, or 

 some other similar material." As with the long-billed marsh 

 wren, and some others, the male of this species often constructs 

 several nests ; perhaps one of these is used by the fcm.nle for a 

 second brood before the first are able to fly, thev being then 

 left to the sole care of the male, but this is not well ascertained. 

 Nuttall conjectured that two females sometimes occupy one 

 nest. 



The eggs, contrary to precedent, are pure opaque white. 

 They are rather small for the size of the bird, excessively frag- 

 ile, elongated-oval, and about .63 by .46 of an inch in dimen- 

 sions. Frequently ten will be counted in a single nest, but it 

 is doubtful whether all these hatch. Two broods are brought 

 out annually. 



[PI. VIII, Fig. 53.] 



Family ALAUDID^^ — Larks. 



53. THE HORNED LARK. 



EREMOPHILA ALPESTRIS {Forst.) Boif. 



Desert Lark, Shore Lark, Prairie Lark: Sky Lark (Labrador); Chip-chupsue 



( Hudson's Bay ) ; Ortolan (Nova Scotia); Snow Lark (Southern Illinois) ; 

 Snow-Bird (L'olorado). 



This is our only representative of the import:int Old World 

 family of Larks, although we have other l)ir(ls miscalled so, 

 the ^-i-'^/////.s- /^/(/(;f/V/(i'>'///.v and the Stiiriiella iiia<^na forcxam- 

 pL'. Including all its races, the horned lark w:in(L-rs over the 

 whole of North- America, but E. alpestris i)r()pcr. — which is 

 identical with the European bird of the same iiiune, — is con- 

 fined in summer to the Arctic regions, particularly those adja- 

 cent to Greenland, and thence sparingly southward as far as the 

 't'^^Q of the United Slates. 



