CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 367 
One set of three eggs taken May 14th, 1889, on the Experi- 
mental Farm, Ottawa, by Dr. James Fletcher. 
Two specimens taken at Indian Head, Assa., and named hoytz, 
are referred here for the present. 
474c. Desert Horned Lark. 
Otocoris alpestris arenicola TAENSH. 1884. 
This is undoubtedly the form named by Dr. Coues Lvremophila 
alpestris leucolema in his article on “ Birds of Dakota and Mon- 
tana” and why his name has been attached to the northern bird 
is more than I can understand. He found this form breeding all 
along the boundary across the whole prairie region. In the 
writer’s trip across the prairie this form was found everywhere on 
the prairie south of Lat. 50° from the rooth meridian to the 114th 
at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Our northern specimens 
are three from Indian Head, Assa., taken between April 7th and 
12th, 1892; four others from Medicine Hat,taken between April 6th 
and May 2nd, 1894. On the prairie south of the line of the Can- 
adian Pacific Railway this species with McCown’s bunting and the 
chestnut collared bunting were extremely common and constantly 
flocked together. (Jacoun.) 
BREEDING Nortes.-—The horned lark is one of the species which, 
in this latitude, usually rears at least two broods each season—a 
fact which in part accounts for the preponderence of individuals 
over those of the species with which they are associated. I have 
already adverted to the extremely early nesting-time which has 
been ascertained and have only to add that the period of repro- 
duction is protracted through July. I have observed young birds 
on the wing in June, and found fresh eggs in the nest during the 
latter half of July. In fact, all through the summer months the 
troops of larks everywhere to be seen consist of old birds mixed 
with the young in all stages of growth. The great flocks, however, 
are not usually made up until the end of the summer, when all 
the young are full grown, and the parents having concluded the 
business of rearing their young, have changed their plumage. The 
young of the first brood soon lose the peculiar speckled plumage 
with which they are at first covered; the later ones change 
about the time the feathers of the old birds are being renewed. 
The agreeable warbling song is scarcely to be heard after June. 
The nest of the horned lark may be stumbled upon anywhere on 
