Across the Fields. 257 



are black, with the exposed edges of the feathers margined with buffy white. 

 There is a large patch of white on the shoulders. 



The female is decidedly sparrow-like in appearance, dusky brown above, 

 streaked with buff. There is a median line of buff on the head dividing the 

 dusky crown, and an obscure dusky line beginning back of the eye, defining 

 a broad buff stripe above the eye. The lower parts are pale buff, lightest on 

 the belly. The sides and flanks are washed with olive gray and indistinctly 

 striped with dusky. The wings and tail are dusky brown having the exposed 

 edges of the feathers buffy. 



All the Bobolinks in the fall are very similar in appearance to female just 

 described, but the adult males have a great admixture of yellowish olive and 

 the buff is clearer. 



The birds breed in nests of grass built on the ground in the grass. 



The picture on the opposite page is reproduced from a photograph of a 

 nest taken in its original undisturbed position in the grass. The eggs are 

 bluish white, speckled and marked in zigzag lines with dark brown. They 

 are decidedly oriole-like in appearance. They are more than four fifths of 

 an inch long, and a little over three fifths of an inch broad. 



The birds breed from Southern New Jersey north to Nova Scotia in 

 suitable localities. They range west to Montana and Utah, and winter in 

 South America, migrating through Florida and the West Indies to that point. 



There are two kinds of Horned Larks represented in the bird fauna of 

 this region : the Horned Lark and the Prairie Horned Lark. 



The Horned Lark is a bird about seven inches and three quarters long. 



It is found in the United States as a fall and winter visitor, rather local in 



its distribution and at this season gregarious. The pre- 



Horned Lark, vailing color of the male bird on the upper parts is a pecu- 



Otocoris alpestris (Linn.). . 



liar shade of pinkish brown, light m tone, more or less 

 washed with cold gray. There is a band of yellowish white across the fore- 

 head which extends backward as a stripe above the eye and on the sides 

 of the head. This marking is defined by a black area of similar shape 

 just inside of it, the portion above and on the sides of the head forming 

 the so-called horns. The region in front of the eye is black, and broadens 

 below the eye so as to be triangular in shape. The throat is sulphur yellow, 

 and there is a black crescent shaped mark on the breast. The remainder of 

 the lower parts are white, the sides and flanks are washed with pinkish brown. 



