BIRDS OF NEW YORK 203 



Otocoris alpestris praticola Henshaw 

 Prairie Horned Lark 



Plate 69 



Otocorys alpestris praticola Henshaw. Auk. July 1884. 1:264 

 Otocoris alpestris praticola A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 2ig. 

 No. 4745 



praticola, Lat., pratum, meadow, and colere, to inhabit 



Description. This species resembles the Horned lark in color, but 

 is paler; throat not so deep a yellow and often white without a tinge of sul- 

 phur; the forehead and line over the eye a dull white without any decided 

 tinge of yellow. It is also smaller than the Horned lark. 



Length 7.25 inches; wing 3.75-4.2; tail 2.4-2.6; bill .38-40. 



Distribution. The Prairie horned lark, which is a subspecies of the 

 preceding, inhabits the interior of North America from southern Manitoba, 

 southern Quebec and southern New Hampshire to eastern Kansas, Ohio, 

 West Virginia and Connecticut. It winters as far south as Texas and 

 Georgia. In New York State the history of this species has been exceed- 

 ingly interesting. While many of our valuable song and insectivorous 

 birds have been diminishing in numbers, this species has gradually increased 

 year after year, until at the present time it inhabits the greater portion 

 of this State as a summer resident. A perusal of the records before me 

 indicates that in 1876 this species was found breeding in central and western 

 New York. At Canandaigua by Mr Howey (see N. O. C. Bull. 3, 40); 

 at Rochester by Mr Jones (ibid., 3, 89); at Lowville by Doctor Merriam 

 (ibid., 3, 53); in 1877 Mr Rathbun found it breeding at Auburn; in 1881 

 Mr Park found it breeding at Green Island near Troy. In 1884 it 

 was found breeding first in Niagara county by Davison and in 1885 at 

 Virgil (see Forest and Stream 22, 145). In 1886 a female was taken at 

 Long Island City on July 31 (see Dutcher, Auk, 5, 181). In 1900 Mr 

 Lispenard S. Horton found it breeding at Gretna, and in 1899 Mr Pember 

 at Granville, Washington county. In 1905 the author found it on June 16 

 feeding its fledglings at Elizabethtown in Essex county. It is evident 

 by a perusal of these records and many others, that there has been a great 



