334 LIFE HISTOEIES OF KOETH AMEEICAK BIEDS. 



The average measurement of sixteen specimens in the United States 

 National Museum collection, all taken by Mr. R. MacFarlaue, is 23.88 by 16.76 

 millimetres, or 0.94 by 0.66 inch. The largest egg of this series measures 26.42 

 by 18.80 millimetres, or 1.04 by 0.74 inches; the smallest, 22.35 by 16 milli- 

 metres, or 0.88 by 0.63 inch. 



The type specimen. No. 13941 (PL 5, Fig. 24), from a set of three eggs, 

 was taken by Mr. R. MacFai'lane, near Anderson River Fort, in Arctic British 

 North America, on July 7, 1865, and represents one of the more uniformly 

 colored types. 



127. Otocoris alpestris praticola Henshaw. 



PRAIRIE HORNED LARK. 



0[tocorys] alpestris praticola Henshaw, Auk, I, July, 1884, 264. 

 (B — , — , E — , — , U 4746.) 



Geographical range: Upper Mississippi Valley and tlie I'egions of the Great 

 Lakes; nortli to Ontario and Manitoba; east to the Kew England and Atlantic Coast States; 

 west to eastern jSTorth and South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, and Kansas; south iu winter 

 to South Carolina and westward to. central Texas.' 



As far as is at present known, the southern limits of the breeding range 

 of the Prairie Horned Lark are confined to suitable localities iu eastern Kansas, 

 noi'thern Missouri, Illinois, northern Indiana and Ohio, northwestern. Pennsyl- 

 vania, and the greater part of New York, where it reaches the seashore. It is 

 also found more or less abundantly throughout the intervening regions north- 

 ward as already indicated, including the eastern portions of the New England 

 States (excepting possibly New Hampshire and Maine), where it is still a rather 

 rare summer resident, and where it breeds as yet only sporadically. 



Within the last thirty years the Prairie Horned Lark has extended its 

 breeding range very materially to the eastward, and in certain localities, notably 

 in the southwestern parts of tlie Adirondack region, especially in Herkimer 

 County, New York, where this bird was practically unknown twenty years ago, it 

 is now a fairly common summer resident, and small companies may be found in 

 every abandoned old clearing along the numerous water courses in this otherwise 

 heavily timbered region. It is essentially a ground bird .and rarely alights on 

 fences, trees, or bushes of any kind; its favorite resorts are fallow fields, prairie 

 tracts, pastures, and country roads, and it is seldom found in heavily wooded 

 country. Dry and almost barren, sandy regions, grown up in places with weeds, 



'In discussing the geographical range of the Prairie Horned Lark Mr. D wight states: "Strange as it 

 may seenj, it ia a fact that several breeding hirds from Carson, Nevada, must be considered of this race." 

 In speaking witli Mr. R. Ridgway regarding alleged specimens of Otocoris alpestris praticola from Carson 

 City, Nevada, he says that, while conceding that the specimens referred to by Mr. Dwight are practically 

 indistinguishable from Mississippi Valley specimens, ho does not consider them as being referable to Otocoris 

 alpestris praticola on account of their obviously different origin. He considers them as intermediate between 

 arenicola and merrilU, a combination of whose characters would necessarily produce a bird similar to praticola 

 in coloration. I fully agree with Mr. Ridgway's views iu this matter, which apparently solve this problem. 



