22 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 
Dakota, eastern North Dakota well into Manitoba; east again 
through Ontario to the west end of the Gulf of the St. 
Lawrence. 
Of the origin of Otocoris alpestris praticola prior to its oe- 
cupancy of the prairie region of central United States but little 
ean be given at this time. The opinion of the writer is that 
the origin of this form must have come from a more southern 
Horned Lark than alpestris, enthymia or hoyti. This conclusion 
is based upon the remarkable physiological cycle of praticola 
that prompts breeding activities in March, long before condi- 
tions in much of its present range make such activities reason- 
ably successful. Such activities are logically explained only 
on the hypothesis that praticola has carried north with it, too 
recently for natural selection to have eliminated, a breeding 
season suited best to more southern, less rigorous conditions. 
Perhaps in eastern Kansas, Missouri and Iowa a March nest is 
profitable and perhaps praticola has been there for a very long 
time. 
This extensive account of the distribution and extension of 
breeding territory of praticola cannot be closed without re- 
ferring to a condition that seems to prevail in Europe with 
respect to Otocoris alpestris flava. Gatke (1895) gives the 
most extensive evidence of this, based upon his lengthy observa- 
tions in Heligoland. It will be necessary to quote him at some 
length: ‘‘There is probably no species which has so rapidly 
and in such numbers advanced the limits of its distribution 
as this Lark has done in the course of the last fifty years, and 
nowhere are its annually increasing migratory flocks displayed 
so abundantly, as at present is regularly the case in Heligoland 
uring the autumn and spring migrations. 
“Until the autumn of 1847 the Shore Lark was known here 
only from the examples shot by the brothers Aeuckens some 
ten years before that date; during the October and November 
of the latter year, however, the birds all of a sudden appeared 
im such large numbers that another gunner of the name of 
Aeuckens was able to shoot twenty of them in one day . 
The numbers increased steadily every year from that time.”” ’ His 
— further give a range of from ‘‘several daily’’, 1850, to 
thousands’’ in 1884. Gatke goes on to say: ‘‘the original 
home of the Shore Lark is North America . . . . By degrees 
