January, 1920] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



15 



with 2 fresh eggs. On July 14 still another nest 

 was located, this one having 4 eggs. At this last 

 date males were singing everywhere and the time 

 was undoubtedly one of general breeding. From 

 these records it will be seen that there is a nesting 

 period of at least four months, also that the birds 

 rear three and perhaps four broods in a season. It 

 is interesting to relate that while the birds do not, 

 as a general rule, rear two families in the same 

 nest, one pair did so, while another couple built a 

 second nest within a few feet of the first. One nest, 

 under close observation, contained young which left 

 it in nine days after hatching, and though they 

 were still unable to fly at that time they had, never- 

 theless, acquired considerable feathering. The nest 

 to which I devoted most attention was situated quite 

 close to the house and within easy vision from a 

 window; it was built among chips and sunken, as 

 usual, in the ground, the locality being one frequent- 

 ed by humans as well as by dogs and poultry. When 

 either of the first two drew near, the brooding bird 

 slipped quietly from the nest, apparently trusting to 

 the color similarity of the young and the nest to the 

 surroundings to keep them from harm, but when a 

 hen came within reach the small bird flew at her 

 with such vigor as to cause the hen to become ser- 

 iously alarmed and make her leave in a hurry. 



The young birds were attended by both parents 

 from the time they were hatched until they left the 

 nest and both adults took an equal share in feeding 

 their offspring, as well as cleaning the nest. As 

 it began to grow dark the female fitted herself over 

 the young for the night while the male after singing 

 in the twilight went to rest in the vicinity. 



Judging from the observations made in 1918, it 

 would seem that the food of young prairie horned- 

 larks consists very largely of cutworms which the 

 parent birds dig out of the ground by aid of their 

 beaks. The locating of these insects is performed 

 with remarkable accuracy though it is due to a 

 knowledge of the insects' haunts rather than to a 

 perception of the exact situation in which they rest. 

 Thus, parent horned-larks were seen, repeatedly, 

 searching around clumps of weeds which were more 

 or less isolated through being surrounded by bare 

 spots, these being the situations which our observa- 

 tion have shown are most frequented by cutworms. 

 The time occupied in securing one of those insects 

 naturally varied, but on an average required rather 

 less than four minutes. A pair of birds watched 

 on June 4, feeding young a week old, and com- 

 mencing at sunset, visited the nest with food on an 

 average every two minutes. Judging from these 

 and other observations we can, therefore, estimate 

 the total number of cutworms consumed in a day at 

 fully 400; in other words, nearly 3,000 a week, and 



this docs not take into consideration the number of 

 insects eaten by the adults which would add con- 

 siderably to the total. 



Cutworm hunting is naturally a daylight oc- 

 cupation and since it continues until dark there is 

 every reason to suspect that it commences soon after 

 dawn, especially as the male birds begin to sing 

 at the first indication of returning day. The birds 

 I had under observation abandoned their work as 

 the day grew dark. 



A few mornings after the records mentioned above 

 were taken, I found the young still in position in 

 the nest, but at 8 a.m. the largest and oldest nest- 

 ling followed its mother away and was soon after 

 lost in the herbage, neither birds being seen again. 

 The male continued to feed the remaining two until 

 five minutes after nine, when the next largest fol- 

 lowed him away. The third nestling was smaller 

 than the others and I fully expected that it would 

 be left to perish as often happens when food is 

 scarce. For a time the male continued to devote 

 all his attention to the one that had followed him 

 but eventually he returned to the nest with a cut- 

 worm and shortly after with yet another. Feeling 

 sorry for the hard worked little bird I placed five 

 full sized cutworms on the edge of the nest and 

 then awaited developments. The male soon re- 

 turned with the usual fare, and then spying the in- 

 sects placed near, he stuffed four of them in suc- 

 cession down the throat of his greedy charge, taking 

 the last grub to the other bird. He continued to 

 labor on behalf of both young until shortly after 

 eleven o'clock when the remaining nestling followed 

 him away. 



The habit of the male bird continuing to support 

 both young after the female had evidently deserted 

 them is naturally a very important characteristic 

 providing it is one that is generally followed. The 

 question remains, would he have attempted to do 

 so had food been scarce? The evidence is in the 

 negative. It is common knowledge to those who 

 have studied horned-larks that they seldom rear 

 more than one of the first brood, the reason for 

 this is apparently the scarcity of insect food at that 

 time, especially the scarcity of cutworms. During 

 June cutworms are at the height of their season and. 

 therefore, the birds find little difficulty in rearing 

 the full allotment of young. July is also a favor- 

 able month owing to the presence of locusts and 

 caterpillars of various kinds. 



The food of adult horned-larks is less insectiv- 

 orous than is that of the young and is at least in 

 part made up of seeds and sprouted plants of var- 

 ious kinds, but from the fact that enormous flocks 

 of these birds sometimes continue on the grain fields 

 for two or three weeks in spring time without doing 



