153 
Nesting. On ground, in nest of grass often amidst snow drifts in early spring. 
Distribution. The Horned Lark in its various forms ranges over all of North America. 
SUBSPECIES. The Horned Lark is divided into many geographical races or 
subspecies. It has a very wide range in North America and living under many and varied 
conditions has developed in different parts of the country along different lines. Thus 
the desert form is small and pallid or bleached, whereas the northeastern, which is the 
type form, is large and strongly coloured. The commonest form in eastern Canada is 
the Prairie Horned Lark O. a. praticola. Originally when the country was well wooded 
this was probably the prairie form, and did not occur in eastern Canada. The making 
of clearings, artificial prairies, has permitted it to come east, where it is to-day the breeding 
form. In the north, east of Hudson bay, occurs the typical or originally described form 
O. a. alpestris at present without a recognized common name and here called the Eastern 
Horned Lark. This is a large bird with a strong suffusion of yellow over the face and 
eyebrow line. As the average difference is only about half an inch in total length and 
as all intermediate sizes occur it can be seen that the differentiation between the forms 
may be somewhat difficult. An attempt to show the difference in coloration is made in the 
illustration. The Eastern Horned Lark occurs within the settled districts of eastern 
Canada only as a winter migrant and is rare except in the Maritime Provinces where it is 
probably the common winter form. Another race, Hoyt’s Horned Lark O. a. hoyti, is 
a northern form, breeding west and northwest of Hudson bay. It is about as large as 
the Eastern and has the general coloration of the prairie form. The brownish instead 
of greyish ear coverts should identify it, but the difference is not great. This form occurs 
occasionally in the lower Great Lakes region as a winter migrant. 
The distribution of the various races and their migrations in Canada have not been 
completely worked out and the difficulty of exact determination is so great that no sub- 
specific determination should be made without expert assistance and a good series of 
authenticated specimens for comparison. 
The Horned Lark is a bird of the open, frequenting bare fields, beaches, 
or roadways. In the winter the seeds of weeds left projecting from the 
snow are its main food supply, and numbers frequent travelled roads for 
the weeds that grow at their sides and for the partly digested grain dropped 
by the horses. Occasionally large winter flocks appear. It is in such 
cases that the rarer migrant forms should be looked for. 
FAMILY—CORVIDAH. JAYS AND CROWS. 
The Crow family is very large and diverse, including many beautiful 
and highly coloured birds; indeed the famous Bird of Paradise is closely 
related to this family. The bill (Figure 45, p. 26) is the most easily — 
distinguished character. It is moderately long and stout with a well 
arched culmen. At the base are tufts of dense, stiff, bristle-like feathers 
pressed close to it and covering the nostrils. The Woodpeckers and the 
Titmice have a suggestion of this, but the latter are all small and the 
former well characterized otherwise. They are not songsters in any 
sense of the term; their voice is hoarse and raucous, but the complexity 
of their vocal organs is very great and some of them can be taught to 
articulate words. They are amongst our most intelligent species and 
by some authors have been put at the head of the whole avian list. 
Subfamily—Garruline. Magpies and Jays. 
Medium-sized: birds, many of them brilliantly coloured and with 
ornamental crests and flowing tails. They can be most easily recognized 
under their specific headings. 
475. Magpie. AMERICAN MAGPIE. FR.—PIE D’AMERIQUE, Pica Pica. L, 15-20. 
(Tail 10.) Only slightly larger in body than a Blue Jay but much longer owing to the 
