History 19 
it an “abundant breeder” at Quincey. Since much of this paper 
is concerned with the Prairie Horned Lark in northern IIli- 
nois, more will not be said of their distribution, but Forbes’ 
(1908) records of Prairie Horned Lark numbers might well be 
given here. In this statistical study A. P. Gross and H. A. 
Ray walked, thirty yards apart, across portions of southern, 
central and northern Illinois, recording the birds of a fifty- 
yard strip. They observed 296 Prairie Horned Larks, or 3.8 
per cent of the total number of birds. The Larks were sev- 
enth in order of abundance, being exceeded by Red-Winged 
Blackbirds, Dicksissels, Mourning Doves, Bronzed Grackles, 
Meadowlarks and English Sparrows. 
Similar surveys made in 1909 (Forbes and Gross, 1922), 
differed from those of 1907 in that records were made for the 
three portions of the state at nearly the same dates (that is 
in June, July and August in each), whereas in 1907 southern 
Illinois was covered in June only, central Illinois in July 
only and northern Illinois from very late July (July 29) to 
early August only. The 1909 records are thus more repre- 
sentative. In this later survey 414 Horned Larks were seen 
and they assume sixth place in rank of total number seen 
(being preceded by Mourning Dove, Cowbird, Meadowlark, 
Bronzed Grackle and English Sparrow). Indicative also of 
the Prairie Horned Lark’s breeding range is the very informa- 
tive fact that, for the two years in southern Illinois, it was 
25th in number (only 55 being recorded), in central Illinois 
it was 8th (204 birds), and in northern Illinois 5th (451 
birds). Now, since the amount of ground covered in each 
region varied less than fifty percent, these figures show id 
striking preference for northern Illinois. This may > 
clue to the optimum conditions for breeding of the Prairie 
Horned Lark. The conditions of the country, verdure and 
erops were strikingly similar in all the regions covered thus 
leading to the conclusion that general distribution in this 
state is a matter of life zone (temperature), and since south- 
ern Illinois is Lower Austral, central Illinois Upper Austral 
and northern Illinois Transitional, then the optimum for the 
Prairie Horned Lark is not reached until the temperatures of 
the Transitional zone prevail though it may breed in all three 
(and indeed on up into the Canadian). 
