tA.0 DwiGttf on the fforned Lar ha. f April 



I have endeavored to prepare a key, but where differences are so 

 slight that now and then the individual variation will amount to as 

 much as the varietal, it is almost impossible to formulate descrip- 

 tions of colors of which no two persons have the same idea. 

 Ridgway's 'Nomenclature of Colors' has been my guide, and 

 typical specimens have been directly compared with the plates 

 of colors in this work. The birds measured have been principally 

 those breeding at points where the races should be typical. The 

 wing measurements of fully three quarters of the series have been 

 roughly taken, and those that were strikingly large or small have 

 received more careful consideration in making comparison with 

 those of normal size and color. Those that were much worn I 

 have endeavored to throw aside, but in some cases they are re- 

 sponsible for the apparently great variation of extremes. 



It is not my purpose to treat the subject exhaustively, but 

 merely to contribute to what we already know, the results ob- 

 tained from a good many weeks' study upon the unexampled 

 series before me. The facts of distribution are graphically repre- 

 sented on the accompanying map. Laboring as I have under 

 the disadvantage of not having visited many of the areas, the study 

 of topography and altitudes, of charts of rain-fall and forest distri- 

 bution, and of the literature bearing upon the subject, has been 

 imperative in properly understanding the relation of one race to 

 another, and the map embodies my conclusions. The area over 

 which each race may be expected to occur in the breeding season 

 is indicated, the lines approaching closely where the material jus- 

 tifies it, and where it does not I have thought it best to leave con- 

 siderable intermediate space. The greater the amount of the 

 material studied, the closer together can these lines of arbitrary 

 demarcation be drawn, my object being to include within them 

 breeding birds that differ less from one another than they do from 

 those of an adjacent area. Of course we must not expect to find 

 Horned Larks everywhere, but only over such portions of a given 

 area as are suitable to the birds' taste. To exactly map distribu- 

 tion will be a work of the future, and I hope my contribution to 

 our knowledge of the genus Otocorls is only a beginning, and out- 

 lines what we may expect to see better done with every species 

 when a sufficient amount of material is gathered. Even that at 

 hand does not suffice to show winter distribution accurately. All 

 the races show a greater or less southward movement at this sea- 



