The Lark in Autumn and in Winter 33 
5. Male, March 11, 
Vegetable matter ......62335152 ee ee 100% 
Ambrosia pobtiiae ote (three seeds). pod 
Setaria (eight seeds)...............000% 10% 
6. Male, March 11. 
Vegetable Inattet <hr a 100% 
rosia artemisiaefolia (six seeds)...50% 
Setaria, two species (seven seeds)....... 50% 
In summary of the feeding habits of the Prairie Horned Lark 
in autumn, winter and early spring, all that need be said is that 
the bulk of food taken is that of seeds of weeds, and the animal 
food, a much smaller per cent, is almost entirely of those forms 
which are harmful to the agriculturist. The Lark, in feeding 
habits, finds for his food those things that appertain to the waste 
lands that he inhabits. 
Call notes.—The Horned Lark, like the Goldfinch, usually 
advertises himself in flight by a definite, unmistakable note. 
Excepting an occasional song, this is about the only sound from 
the birds in fall and winter. Reed (1923) describes this flight 
note as “‘tseet’’ and Knight (1908, p. 325) puts it into such 
words as ‘‘we-tseet’’ or ‘‘weechy-weer’’. 
The flight and eall notes are several in number however, some 
of them appertaining more especially to the breeding season than 
to wintering birds and in that connection they will be considered 
again. The chief stock in trade of the Lark and the one most 
commonly heard is ‘‘p-seet’’ or merely ‘‘zeet’’. It is uttered 
casually on the climb of the ordinary undulating flight, espec- 
ially on long journeys and in flights of young birds. Adults 
frequently make low flights over the ground without uttering a 
note. This ‘‘p-seet’’ is occasionally, sometimes frequently, 
lengthened to ‘‘p-seet-it’’ during the flight. When flushed the 
note is ‘‘zu-weet’’ or ‘‘zur-reet’’ (long drawn), ‘‘zeet-eet-it”’, 
or ‘‘zeet-it-a-weet’’, which is so high-pitched and mournful in 
character that it makes the birds indeed a part of the winter’s 
gale that whips them away. 
Flights—Breeding birds, such as females in abandonment 
concealment of the nest, or males in flight song, exhibit several 
distinct flights, but at other seasons the flight is of but one defin- 
ite character. This is a choppy undulation brought about by 
three or four rapid, even strokes of the wings interrupted by 
the space of about two beats during which the wings are closed. 
