52 



THE OOLOGIST 



day when the ground is not covered 

 with snow you may see from three to 

 ten or a dozen in a flock along the road 

 or in the ploughed fields, meadows or 

 pastures. In February you can always 

 look for them in larger flocks. I have 

 often seen them in late February in 

 flocks of fifty or more. On February 

 5th of this year as I was driving the 

 car to town I saw no less than six 

 bunches ranging in number from seven 

 to eighteen in a flock, but the next 

 day it snowed all day and I have not 

 seen any from that date to the pres- 

 ent time (Feb. 10th). 



The Prairie Horned Lark is an early 

 breeder here with us, as it often nests 

 early in March. On March 11th, 1909 

 as I was walking through a pasture 

 which had grown up well to blue grass 

 the fall before I found a nest of the 

 Prairie Horned Lark on the ground in 

 the blue grass. It was composed of 

 grass and weed stems and a very few 

 pieces of corn husks, lined with fine 

 grass. 



The snow was not entirely gone, 

 there being long narrow strips of snow 

 scattered all over this 180 acre pas- 

 ture where it had drifted during the 

 previous storm some two weeks be- 

 fore. 



The nest was situated well down on 

 a long south slope near a ditch, and 

 was not more than twenty feet from 

 snow which was three feet deep, the 

 nest contained two eggs so I carefully 

 marked the nest so that I could find 

 it. The day was raw and cold and 

 cloudy and that night it snowed about 

 three inches of very heavy wet snow, 

 and arriving at the nest next day I 

 found it covered with snow and no 

 larks in sight that day. I carefully 

 removed the snow from the nest with 

 my hands and found that the nest con- 

 tained three egss, these I packed in 

 my collection box, and then gathering 

 up the water soaked nest I took it 



home and dried it and then mounted 

 it on a stand. 



This is the earliest record which I 

 have of this species nesting in central 

 Iowa. 1 have found the nests from 

 March 11th to Aug. 17th, the latter 

 date is my latest record. 



By far the largest number of nests 

 found are by hills of growing corn, 

 placed usually on the north side of the 

 plant, and each day that the weather 

 will permit the farmers to cultivate 

 their corn many thousands of their 

 nests are destroyed by the corn 

 plough. Most authors state that the 

 number of eggs laid by this species is 

 from three to five usually four, in fully 

 75 per cent of the nests which I have 

 found contained three eggs. I have 

 never yet been able to find a set of 

 five out of the hundreds of sets which 

 I have found. There is a great vari- 

 ation in the size and color of the eggs. 

 See article in December 1920 Oolo- 

 gist by Mr. Fred J. Pierce, on the 

 fiight of the Prairie Horned Lark. 

 This is the best article on the flight 

 and song of this bird that I have ever 

 read. 



Note — Let each and all of us put our 

 shoulder to the wheel and send in an 

 article to the Oolcgist. We need the 

 Oologist and it needs us to help. Let 

 us hear more from the fellows in the 

 Northwest and Canada 



John L. Cole, 



Nevada, Iowa. 



The editor seconds the motion. All 



in favor will vote by sending us the 



copy showing that you each have "put 



your shoulder to the wheel." — R.M.B. 



"The paper improves every year." 

 E. W. Kelly. 



"I find much of interest in your little 

 magazine and I hope it a very success- 

 ful year." 



Wm. L. G. Edson. 



