68 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 
Lark subspecies in this habit of early nesting. I have found no 
evidence, in the literature, that even such southern forms as 
giraudi or chrysolaema nest in March and alpestris does not begin 
until June in Labrador. Lastly Criddle (1917) notes that enthy- 
mia breeding in the same region with praticola at Aweme, Mani- 
toba, does not begin to nest before May, whereas praticola, there 
as elsewhere, nests in March. The mystery of March nests, then, 
begins and ends in the Prairie Horned Lark. 
On finding nests and the reactions of nest-building and egg- 
laying Larks.—The first preliminary to the location of a nest 
is to find the singing male. Having done that one has an idea, 
within a hundred yards, perhaps more, perhaps less, where the 
nest is or where it will be located. But the nest is still far from 
being found. Mouseley (1919) writes that he locates the fa- 
vorite song post of the male, then marks out an area twenty to 
thirty yards in each direction, this he examines carefully or 
watches the male until he flies to the nest. By this means he 
located three or four nests, one of which had young. Rarely, 
in observing the actions of Larks in thirty-one nestings, have 
I seen the male approach an incubating female unless the female 
was first disturbed. Likewise the ‘‘favorite’’ song posts of a 
male may be numerous and some as far as one-hundred to one- 
hundred and fifty yards from the nest. If there are young in 
the nest the male, in feeding, will, at times, give the location 
away more quickly than the female, in other cases the reverse 1s 
true. But, outside of a general indication of a breeding area 
denoted by song, the male has never been of great service to 
me in finding nests with eggs. 
Tt is my belief that, except for mere accident and the rarest 
kind of accident at that, a nest cannot be found between the 
beginning of egg-laying and incubation. As far as I ean ascer- 
tain from the literature, very few such have been found (ex- 
cepting possibly McDonald, 1916) and, considering the unbeliev- 
able inconspicuousness of a nest even in the bare areas where 
it is placed, its chances of being found, unassisted by actions of 
the parent bird, are negligible. Neither female nor male ap- 
proach a nest in this state and though one can know from the 
actions of the birds (extreme nonchalance, an infinity of leisure 
* Since the above was written th it 1 of fil actia 
with a companion, Mr. Paul Walker. “10 ager Frage Gs ris al: 
March nest of Otocoris alpestris 
at San Jose, California a (March 25, 1928). : 
