848 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. voi-.xxiv. 
The .supposed type of Audubon's Alauda vufa^ with which his plate 
and description agree, has been examined, and belongs evidently to 
the Californian race, rather than to chrysolmna proper. This name, 
however, is not available for the form in question, being preoccupied 
by Alauda rufa Gmelin^ { — AntJms ri(fiis). 
A considerable series of breeding hoi'ned larks from the vicinity of 
Milton, California — which it will be noticed is only about 20 miles 
cast of Stockton, the reputed type locality of ruhea — and several winter 
specimens from Valley Springs, Calaveras County, California, are 
variously and quite perplexingly intermediate between aetia and nihea. 
Some of the specimens from Milton, if examined alone, are apparently 
nearer ruhea; others from the same place are undoubtedly closer to 
actia; while still others are intermediate between these two extremes— 
and all breeding in one locality. Taken as a whole, together with those 
from Valley Springs above mentioned, they seem to average rather 
nearer actia. Breeding l)irds from elsewhere in Calaveras County are 
also to be referred to actia^ as apparently must also be a June female 
from Stockton. A single male from Chinese Camp, California, though 
to some extent resembling ruhea in the ruddiness of the upper parts, 
seems to be nearer the present race; while an example from Fresno, 
California, is quite typical. Thus it appears that the horned lark of 
the San Joaquin Valley is actia — not ruhea., as Dr. D wight surmised 
would prove to bo the case.^ 
A July specimen from Kernville, California, shows only a slight 
approach to ajnmvpliila; but a breeding male from Tehatchapi, Cali- 
fornia, is decidedly intermediate, though nearer actia, being moreover 
curiously similar to adusta. The birds from the western part of the 
Mexican border of California are identical with those of the coast 
region north toward San Francisco; but some specimens from San 
Fernando, Lower California, are slightly paler, 3^et referable clearly to 
actia; and birds from the vicinity of San Francisco Bay average larger 
and darker, more reddish above. A pair of adult breeding Otocoris 
from Santa Rosalia Bay, Lower California, are considerably paler and 
smaller than typical actia^ being, in fact, exceedingly similar to some 
specimens of aminojyhila, from the range of which form their locality 
is isolated by the interposition of the area inhabited by actia. These 
two specimens were called pallida by Dr. D wight,* but they differ 
from that race in their much smaller size; darker, less uniform color 
al)ove; more pinkish nape; more brownish back; and more l)lackish 
rump. So far as the material at hand indicates, actia. is almost entirely 
resident, for there are no specimens which can be positively stated to 
])e out of its breeding range. 
Possibly in none of the horned larks is purely individual variation 
'Birds America, VII, 1843, p. 353, pi. ccccxcvii. ^\uk, VII, 1890, p. 151. 
^Syst. Nat, I, 1788, p. 792. Udein, p. 155. 
