60 Bird-Nesting 



dry grass embedded in the sand, and the top of the nest was 

 flush with the surrounding sand, and sheltered by a tuft of 

 grass. It only contained one egg of the pallid -horned lark be- 

 sides the two cowbirds, and all of the eggs were advanced 

 in incubation. The two cowbird's eggs were evidently 

 laid by the same bird. The egg of the pallid-horned 

 lark is deep buff, sprinkled with olive-brown and measures 

 92x65. The following day I found another nest of this species, 

 it contained two eggs which were fresh, they are very much 

 like the one found previously, both as regards colour and size. 

 The pallid-horned lark inhabits this region and becomes more 

 plentiful northward through Alberta and the Saskatchewan to 

 Alaska, but does not breed in the United States except in 

 Northern Montana. The eggs are larger than those of the 

 prairie-horned lark, of which I have a large series, collected 

 near Winnipeg and Northern Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. 

 The eggs of the pallid-horned lark are the same size as those 

 of the horned lark which breeds in Northern Europe, of which 

 I have several sets collected in Lapland. 



A few pairs of the true horned lark, Otocoris alpestris, re- 

 main to nest every spring on the island opposite Toronto, 

 Lake Ontario, although the main body go farther north-east 

 to breed around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador, and 

 Newfoundland. For some time our local ornithologists have 

 been undecided as to whether these shore larks, nesting on To- 

 ronto Island, were prairie-horned larks or the true Otocoris 

 alpestris. We have now come to the conclusion that they are 

 Otocoris alpestris. Early in spring, while this sandy island is 

 covered with snow, and almost before the ice in the bay has 

 broken up, large flocks of larks arrive and frequent the island 

 for some time. By the first week in May the main flocks have 

 left, only leaving a few straggling pairs, which remain to nest. 



Two sets, with the nests, before me, are considerably larger 

 than the eggs of the prairie-horned lark. The first set, collected 

 on Toronto Island, May 21st, 1886, consisted of four eggs, ave- 

 raging in size 90x64. The eggs have a greenish-grey ground, 

 freckled all over with pale brownish grey. Another nest before 



