THE RUDDY HORNED LARK. 343 



131. Otocoris alpestris rubea Henshaw. 



RUDDY HORNED LARK. 



O[tocorys] alpestris rubeus Henshaw, Auk, I, July, 1884, 267. 

 (B — . — , R — , C — , U 474/.) 



Geographical range : Valleys of the interior of California, mainly those bordering 

 the Sacramento River, north to about latitude 40°, between the coast ranges and the Sierra 

 Nevada; south into the San Joaquin Valley iu winter. 



The breeding range of the Ruddy Horned Lark is confined, as far as 

 known, to a comparatively small area of the interior of the northern half of 

 California, the valleys of the Sacramento River and its larger tributaries, and 

 possibly also to the northern parts of the San Joaquin Valley, bat this is not 

 yet positively known. It is generally a resident where found, excepting in 

 unusually severe winters, when it migrates to more congenial localities in the 

 southern part of the State. 



Mr. Charles H. Townsend, in speaking of this subspecies, says: "This form 

 of the Horned Lark is a very common inhabitant of the plains and open country 

 everywhere in northern California. It was found in limited numbers on the 

 sage-covered districts north of Mount Shasta in midsummer. The closely-grazed 

 sheep pastures of the Upper Sacramento Valley were alive with them in April 

 and May, and they were abundant in July on the grassy plains east of Mount 

 Lassen. As I was not at Red Bluff in midsummer or midwinter, I can not affirm 

 that they are always present there, but think it not unlikely; a few were nesting 

 there late in May. On May 4 I found a most remarkable nest of eggs, in all 

 probability of this species. I had secured a number of Horned Larks the same 

 morning in a stubble field, and a nest containing one egg of the usual olive- 

 white color, with minute dark spots, so characteristic of the egg of the species, 

 when a plowman approached with a nest containing three eggs of similar size 

 and pattern of marking, but so suffused with a rich reddish brown as to be 

 unrecognizable. The man said they were those of a bird exactly like the Oto- 

 coris in my basket. Both nests were of equal size, loosely made of grasses and 

 weeds, and placed among the clods and stubble. There were no other birds on 

 the entire plain but Horned Larks, and as the eggs agree with no others, there 

 is no alternative but to call them eggs of this species." 1 



The general habits, food, etc., resemble those of the other members of this 

 family very closely, as well as the eggs, of which there are few in the United 

 States National Museum collection — only those taken by Mr. Townsend, men- 

 tioned already. The three reddish-colored eggs are unquestionably referable to 

 this subspecies, and such instances of abnormal coloration are known to occur 

 occasionally in other species as well. Two parallel cases will be found among 

 those described of the California Jay and the Crow, in which the normal green 

 color and darker markings are replaced by ruddy and pinkish buff tints. 



'Proceedings of the IT. S. National Museum, Vol. 10, 18S7, p. 210. 



