326 General Notes. Yo& 



commonly through the scattered woods of spruce (Picea engelmanni) , fir 

 (Pseudotsitga taxi folia) , pine (Pinus ayacahuite) and aspen (Pof>/<ltts 

 tremuloides). The flowers of the honeysuckle attract great numbers of 

 hummers, and hundreds of Selasphorus platycercus, and many Eugenes 

 fulgens and Cceligena clemencice were seen daily about the clumps. Early 

 on the morning of June 9, in company with Mr. Fred. Hall Fowler, the 

 writer saw a female Basilinna leucotis sitting on a dead twig of a Loni- 

 cera bush close to the ground, warming itself in the rays of the rising 

 sun. The white stripe on the side of the head was plainly visible, and 

 led to its speedy capture. Subsequently others were looked for but none 

 were seen. — -A. K. Fisher, Washington, D. C. 



Breeding of the Prairie Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris praticola) 

 near Pittsfield, Mass. — Sometime since I received a letter from Mr. 

 Henry R. Buck, of Weathersfield, Corin., giving a detailed account of the 

 discovery of a small colony of Prairie Horned Larks, evidently breeding, 

 near Pittsfield, Mass. Although the old birds were not taken, they were 

 carefully observed, and Mr. Buck's intelligent description of them, and 

 of the nest and eggs he obtained leaves their identification scarcely open 

 to question, as is shown by the following extracts from his letter. Mr. 

 Buck writes : "This summer [1892] I became interested in a nest .... 

 of Otocoris alpestris, which I thought was only a winter visitor here. 

 Mr. C. H. Buckingham of Pittsfield, Mass., with whom I was walking, 

 found the nest July 10, 1892. . . . The bird had built her nest in a sheep 

 pasture, on the very top of a treeless mountain west of Pittsfield ; on the 

 ground of course. She could hardly have found a more unprotected 

 spot, and had not roofed over the nest at all. It was about four inches in 

 diameter, sunk even with the surface of the ground, and was composed 

 of a thick wall of moss lined with dry grass, several locks of wool, and 

 two or three leaves. 



"The eggs were four in number, fresh, of about the. same shape as an 

 English Sparrow's, of a pale greenish ground color, spotted indistinctly 

 but thickly with light brown and purplish. The spots are not at all 

 clearly defined and not perceptibly thicker at one end than at the other. 

 The eggs measure .62 X .84, .61 X .S5 and .61 X .83 inches. No. 4 got 

 cracked, so I did not measure it, but it was about the size of the others. 



"We could not get a very close look at the bird, since she would sneak 

 off when we were yet quite a distance from the nest, and after she had 

 gone about forty yards would run unconcernedly about, among some 

 rocks near there, but would always keep about the same distance away 

 from us. If we followed her closely she would fly off with a steady, 

 rapid motion of the wings, very like the flight of a Meadowlark. On the 

 ground she ran easily and seemed to be able to go quite fast. 



"We saw five or six other birds of the same kind near the place but 

 could find no other nest. The birds were a little longer than a Bluebird — 

 I should say about seven inches — but much plumper and stouter, reminding 

 one of a Meadowlark in this respect. They were brown above and white 



