THE DESERT HORNED LARK. 339 



birds miles away from water, and they may frequently be observed running 

 along the roads in search of food and engaged in taking dust baths. Many 

 are yearly destroyed by the terrific hailstorms so prevalent along the eastern 

 slopes of the Rocky Mountains, while others are often benumbed and smothered 

 on the oj)en prairies, where there is little or no shelter from sudden blizzards and 

 fierce snowstorms; taking it all in all, they seem to have a hard fight for life, 

 and it is a wonder that so many survive. 



Mr. William G. Smith writes: "While I lived in the Platte River Canyon, 

 40 miles west of Denver, Colorado, a terrible snowstorm set in suddenly in April, 

 and with it came thousands of these birds, which tried to shelter themselves 

 under projecting banks. The majority were soon so chilled by the intensely 

 cold wind which was blowing at the same time, that they could not move, and 

 were quickly smothered by the drifting snow; and after this melted bushels of 

 their dead bodies could be picked up everywhere. My children brought a great 

 many live birds into the house. They seemed completely bewildered and made 

 no attempt to escape capture, but seemed very thankful for their freedom next 

 morning-." 



Many of these birds winter within the United States along our southern 

 border, in the Colorado Desert and similar localities, while a few may be found 

 in midwinter occasionally as far north as latitude 39°. Of fourteen specimens 

 sent me in the flesh by Mr. William Gr. Smith, of Loveland, Colorado, shot on 

 January 15, 1892, twelve were intermediate between Otocoris alpestris leucolcema 

 and Otocoris alpestris arenicola, and but two were typical examples of this 

 subspecies, probably all being migrants from the north. 



The breeding season of the Desert Horned Lark commences apparently 

 much later than that of the Prairie Horned Lark in similar latitudes, and even 

 much farther south. The earliest breeding record I find among the series of 

 eggs of this subspecies in the United States National Museum collection is one 

 of my own, a set of three eggs taken near Fort Custer, Montana, on May 16, 

 1885, in which incubation was well advanced; the latest is from the Black Hills, 

 in South Dakota, July 21, 1859. The majority of the records fall in June, and 

 two are in July. Mr. Robert Ridgway found a nest of this subspecies, with four 

 eggs, near Truckee, Nevada, on June 3, 1868. Probably two broods are raised 

 in a season. From three to four eggs are laid to a set. They resemble those of 

 the previously described subspecies very closely, both in shape and coloration, 

 excepting that an occasional set is rather more evenly and lighter colored, giving 

 the egg a uniform pale gray appearance. 



The average measurement of forty-five specimens in the United States 

 National Museum collection is 21.84 by 15.85 millimetres, or about 0.86 by 0.62 

 inch. The largest egg of the series measures 23.37 by 17.02 millimetres, or 0.92 

 by 0.67 inch; the smallest, 19.56 by 15.24 millimetres, or 0.77 by 0.60 inch. 



The type specimen. No. 21971 (PI. 5, Fig. 26), from a set of three eggs, 

 was taken by Dr. James C. Merrill, United States Army, near Fort Custer, 

 Montana, in June, 1881, and represents one of the pale gray types previously 

 mentioned. 



