THE HORNED LARK. 13 



The species has been known to breed in Canada West, in 

 southern Iowa, Indiana, and in the northwest generally, while 

 one variety is known to breed in New Mexico. This latter 

 variety is said to be smaller and brighter colored than the 

 common type, while that of the northwest is larger and 

 lighter in color. As one approaches the Atlantic States, 

 the Horned Lark is irregularly migratory in large flocks; 

 this common type being in no respect different from its 

 European representative. 



Ordinarily the Horned Lark is strictly terrestrial. When 

 alighted it is most commonly seen resting on the ground 

 or walking; it is a great walker, maintaining its center of 

 gravity by a graceful, dove-like motion of the head. Seldom, 

 if ever, is it seen in a tree, aspiring, when at rest, merely to 

 the top rail of the fence. It has one trick, however, strangely 

 in contrast with its ordinary lowliness, and which once 

 greatly perplexed me. It was a sunny afternoon, late in 

 May. Hearing its song, now quite familiar to me, I strolled 

 warily through the open field, hoping to find its nest. But 

 whence came the song? It was as puzzling as the voice of 

 a ventriloquist. Now it seemed on the right, and now on 

 the left, and now in some other direction. Presently I- 

 caught the way of the sound, and lo! its author was soaring 

 high in air, moving in short curves up, up, singing for a few 

 moments as it sailed with expanded wings before each 

 flitting curve upward, till it became a mere speck in the 

 zenith, and finally I could scarcely tell whether I saw it 

 or not. But I still heard the song, one that never can be 

 mistaken, so unlike is it to that of any other bird. At first 

 one is at a loss whether to be pleased with it, and is 

 tempted to compare it to the screaking of an ungreased 

 wheelbarrow. " Quit, quit, quit, you silly rig and get away" it 

 seems to say: the first three or four syllables being slowly 



