The Lark in Autumn and in Winter 31 
is content ; but in winter birds from farther north, from Aretic 
tundras and barrens, share with him his favorite flocking 
grounds. Thus Brimley (1893) reports Prairie Horned Larks 
associating with Horned Larks at Raleigh, North Carolina. At 
Evanston also the Horned Lark found the home of praticola 
suitable for a temporary abode and great flocks of Lapland 
Longspurs ran about on the barren flats apparently as much a 
part of that environment as the Larks themselves. 
Nightly quarters—Apparently the Larks remain where 
night finds them on the open areas. No endeavor is exercised 
to locate any shelter other than that of sparse grass clump or 
available clod. Nor do they cluster tightly but pass the night 
in the same scattered groupings that they maintain while feed- 
ing. Sutton (1927, p. 132) describes the awakening of a flock 
wherein the ‘‘creatures left their roosts beside or beneath little 
clumps of grass’’. After a heavy snow at Evanston, Illinois, I 
have noted virgin morning tracks of Larks emerging from the 
shelter of scant grass clumps where the snow had made roofed 
shelters for them. 
Food in fall, winter, and early spring—McAtee (1905), in 
his extensive account of the food of the Horned Larks, writes 
that in August and September many grasshoppers are taken 
(7.1 and 8.9 per cent of the total food respectively), and that 
weevils constitute 18 per cent of the food in August. He says 
further that spiders are taken in every month. The conspicuous 
weed seeds which he lists (foxtail grasses, smart weeds, bind 
weeds, amaranth, pigweeds, purslane, ragweed, crab and barn 
grasses), are probably largely consumed in fall, winter and 
early spring. The total of 79.4 per cent of vegetable matter 
taken in the year, as given by McAtee, is made up largely of 
these weed seeds. McAtee found about 40 per cent of food taken 
in August to be animal matter, 20 per cent animal matter in 
September, between 10 and 20 per cent in October, 5 per cent or 
less in November, about 2 per cent in December, 1.73 per cent 
in January and 3.11 per cent in February. The animal matter 
of January and February consisted principally of weevils and 
cocoons of Tineid Moths. Grain (chiefly waste oats, corn and 
wheat) formed 12.2 per cent of the food of Larks (exclusive of 
California forms) and much of this would have been taken in 
the period under consideration. 
