'56 



Dwight on the Horned Larks. [April 



lading of the autumn plumage, each individual feather wearing away at 

 the points of least resistance, chiefly the tip. As the feathers of the back are 

 darker at the base they fade least, the yellow ones fade most, while the vina- 

 ceous tints of the neck are often deeper in summer than in spring when 

 the grayish tips are longer, consequently : 



Adult males in autumn plumage differ from breeding birds only in 

 softer plumage and more blended colors; grayish, yellowish, or brownish 

 tips obscure the whole of the upper parts, producing a grayer or darker, 

 more broadly and indistinctly streaked appearance; yellowish tips ob- 

 scure more or less the black areas; and dusky tips just below the black 

 crescent produce a clouding or indistinct spotting across the breast. The 

 yellows are much brighter. 



Young of the year are usually more conspicuously spotted, washed with 

 butty across the breast, and browner and darker above, with smaller bills. 



Females in breeding plumage. — Smaller than males; black areas more 

 restricted and less clearly defined; streaked continuously above from 

 frontal band to rump-band, lines narrowest on the head and fewest on the 

 nape, sometimes forming a black patch (rarely as distinct as in the most 

 indistinct male) on the fore part of the crown ; frontal band often narrow 

 and obscure; shoulders and ear-coverts frequently obscured with dusky; 

 otherwise similar to the male. 



Adult females in autumn plumage. — Plumage softer and colors more 

 suffused than in breeding dress, grayish, brownish or yellowish tips ob- 

 scuring the various areas of color. Brownish wash and dusky spotting on 

 the breast more or less distinct. 



Young of the pear usually darker and browner above, the breast below 

 the crescent more conspicuously washed with bufly and more heavily 

 spotted with dusky brown. 



Young in jirst plumage. — Above dusky, brownish or bufly, conspicu- 

 ously dotted from bill to tail with white : wing-quills and coverts edged with 

 bufly; below white, spotted (more or less) across the breast with dusky, 

 often on a huffy wash. This plumage is completely moulted in acquiring 

 the autumn dress which varies but little from that of the adult. The 

 feathers of the back are first replaced, those of the shoulders next, then 

 the wing-quills, beginning with those nearest the body, and when the 

 spotted plumage has nearly all disappeared, the head changing last, the 

 black about the head and then that of the jugular crescent begins to show, 

 and the tail feathers appear last of all. Bill and feet pale yellowish. 



KEY TO MALES, BASED ON BREEDING PLUMAGE. 



I 



A. Backs grayish or brownish. 



a. Colors pale, nape, shoulders and rump-band pinkish ; colors gen- 

 erally grayer in autumn. 

 a' . No yellow anywhere; wing, in.8 mm. (4.40 in.), leucolcema. 

 b'. Yellow on throat. 



