24 



THE OOLOGIST. 



very ditlVivnl as the spots are so close 

 as to entirely hide the ground color, 

 like some specimens ofthe Cactus Wren, 

 and the whole egg presents a delicate 

 light pinkish appearance. They are 

 different from any eggs of this species 

 that I have seen, including the Smith- 

 sonian series, and I value them very 



highly. 



Theodokk W. Richards, 



Washington, D. C. 



The Prairie Horned Lark in Monroe 

 County, N. Y. 



I have seen but very little in the pag- 

 es of The Oologist, on the nesting of 

 the Prairie Horned Lark in the United 

 States, and, as I have found several 

 nests, I write this article hoping it will 

 be of interest to some of the readers of 

 this interesting magazine. I have seen 

 the liird here every month of the year 

 except Ueceniber. If one has ever been 

 seen here in December it has not come 

 to my knoAvledge. They liy over us 

 northward from January until April. 

 A few stay to breed and from September 

 until December they liy South. In this 

 locality the bird certainly ))rceds twice 

 each season, as my experience will 

 show. It is a singular fact that though 

 I have found se\-en nests in the last 

 three years, vet 1 know positively that 

 no (jther collector in this vicinity has 

 found a single nest. The earliest nest 

 I have ftnuul Avas on the 23d of March, 

 1889. (It is quite prolnible that they 

 sometimes lay earlier, as a friend of 

 mine found a young bird iu the latter 

 part of April that could liy some.) It 

 was placed in a hole, evidently made 

 for tliC piu-pose l)y the l>ird, in a field 

 that bad licen used as a pasture the fall 

 Ijefore. It was made entirely of thistle 

 down and was very dry and snug. The 

 bird was on the nest when found. It 

 contained three fresh eggs. They were 

 greenish white spotted so thickly with 

 has and lavendar as to. give tl.em a 



cloudy appearance. On the tOth of 

 April following I found another nest 

 similarly situiited and constructed. 

 This containeti three eggs like the first 

 set which I took, but left the nest. On 

 going back to the nest two days later I 

 found another egg, but it had been 

 frozen and cracked. After this I found 

 n(j more nests until midsummer. On 

 the 2nd of June I found a nest contain- 

 ing three fresh eggs. This was situated 

 in a growing ccn-nfield close under the 

 edge of a sod, and was made very 

 poorly of dead grass. On the 1st of 

 July I found another nest in the Sj/me 

 field containing four eggs; nest lit/ the 

 last. If the Horned Lark lays more 

 than four eggs I wcmld like to hear 

 from some Avho has found a set of live 

 through the columns of the The OoLoi j 

 GIST. I have found one set of two near- 

 ly hatched, the rest have all l-een sets 

 of three and four. The avei-age size is 

 .87 X .(35. 



Ekxkst Shokt. 



Winter Birds of Hennepin Co., Minn. 



I do not intend to give a complete 

 list but only some of our less common 

 winter visitors, which have fallen under 

 my notice: 



Evening Grosbeak. Plentiful . Re- 

 side here all winter, feeding on box 

 elder seeds. These birds are rarely 

 found without the city, l)Ut prefer to 

 remain within the limits. Tiiis makes 

 it dilllcult to obtain them, still the air 

 guns and "nigger shooters" enalile one 

 to obtain any reasonable manber. 



Bohemian Waxvving. Common at 

 times. Winter visitor. This I think is 

 one of imr handsomest birds. This 

 year are very rare. Last year common. 



Northern Shrike. Arrive about No- 

 vember. Same habits as White-rump- 

 ed. Fairly abundant. 



Lapland Longspur. A few stray 

 birds are found in large flocks of Snow' 

 Buntings. Easily distinguished from 



