I C 2 Dwight oh the Homed Larks. [ April 



and even arenicola. Five spring males from Oregon show very 

 little yellow on the breast, and one of them none. Females are 

 but slightly tinged on the chin. 



It appears to be resident in a narrow belt, of heavy rainfall, 

 west of the Cascade Mountains. The line of 44 inches annual rain- 

 fall almost coincides with the meridian of 123 down to about Lat. 

 40 , while east of the mountains the rainfall is only 20 inches. It 

 is also much warmer along the coast, so that it is natural to find 

 the coast birds resident and those east of the mountains migratory. 

 The great number of merrilli found in winter in California, as 

 compared with strigata, seems to support this idea. 



It is to be noted here that, starting in Mexico, the size of the 

 Horned Larks decreases as we go north along the coast, reaching 

 its minimum in strigata, while inland it increases reaching its 

 maximum in leucolcema. Merrilli is intermediate in size between 

 arenicola and strigata, as might be expected. I have not seen 

 young of strigata. 



Mr. C. H. Townsend has kindly loaned me a series of ten 

 male Horned Larks from the Santa Cruz group of Islands, Cali- 

 fornia, including the type of the race he calls insularis. I am 

 much surprised to find his birds practically indistinguishable from 

 Oregon specimens of strigata. They are the same size and 

 though averaging a little darker, the nape approaching brick red, 

 some of them can be matched by the few specimens of strigata, 

 I have for comparison. I know that as a rule island birds make 

 not only good races, but often good species, and that Oregon is 

 hundreds of miles from these particular islands, but the fact 

 remains that these two forms differ far less from one another than 

 do any two of the other forms that are of the same size. The 

 case seems parallel to that of the Carson praticola, and may well 

 raise the question of what constitutes a race. The study of the 

 Horned Larks convinces me that identical races may occur in 

 isolated spots very much like oases in a desert, but it may be that 

 future material will cause me to change my opinion. 



Average measurements of 17 breeding males: wing, 98. S mm. 

 (3.89 in.) ; tail, 67.8 mm. (2.67 in.) ; tarsus, 2 i.i mm. (.83 in.) ; bill from 

 nostril, 9.1 mm. (.36 in.). 



Specimens examined: $, 18, $, 19. Localities represented: *Ft. 

 Steilacoom and *Shoalwater Bay, Wash. ; *Salem and Albany, Ore. ; 

 Red Bluff, Gridley, Yuba Co., Summit, San Francisco, and *Santa Cruz 

 islands, Cala. 



