Fig. 32. Horned Lark. 



MOTACILLID.*:, WAGTAILS. — GEN. 26. 89 



,'5 26. Genus EREMOPHILA Boie. 



Horned Lark. Shore Lark. In spring: — Pinkish-brown, brightest on 

 rump, nape and wing coverts, thickly streaked with dusky ; below, white, 

 breast and sides shaded with the color of the back, chin, throat and super- 

 ciliary line pale yellow, or yellowish- white ; a pectoral crescent and curved 

 stripe under the eye, black ; tail 

 black, outer feathers white-edged 

 and middle ones like the back. 

 Tints extremely variable; young 

 birds, and fall and winter specimens 

 of the Atlantic States are plain 

 grayish-brown, streaked with darker, 

 below soiled whitish, and with the 

 black markings of the head and 

 breast obscure or wanting, though 

 the yellow is usually bright — even 

 more so than in spring. Length 7-7J, wing 4J, tail 2|-3, tarsus f , hind 

 claw ^-|, very slender and sharp. North America; in the east retires in 

 spring bej'ond the United States, but in the west breeds on the plains much 

 further south. Wils., i, 85, pi. 5, f. 4; Nutt., i, 455; Aud., iii, 44, pi. 

 151; Be, 403 alpestris. 



Var. chkysoljEma. A rather smaller, brighter colored race, occurring in south- 

 western United States and Mexico. It looks quite different at first sight, but is 

 not distinguishable as a species by any definite or constant characters. Alauda 

 rufa Aud., vii, 353, pi. 497 ; Bd., 403. The foregoing, with E. iKregrina, a South 

 American species or variety, are the only American Alaudidce. 



Family MOTACILLID^. Wagtails. 



Bill shorter than the head, verj^ slender, straight, acute, notched at tip. Rictus 

 not evidently bristled. Primaries nine, of which the 1st is about as long as the 2d, 

 and the first three, four or five, form the point ; inner secondaries enlarged, the 

 longest one nearly, or quite, equalling the primaries in the closed wing. Tail 

 lengthened, generally about equalling the wing. Feet large ; tarsus scutellate, 

 longer than the middle toe and claw ; inner toe cleft to the very base, but basal 

 joint of outer toe soldered with the middle one ; hind toe usually bearing a long 

 and little curved claw. A pretty well defined group of one hundred, chiefly Old 

 World, species, which may be termed terrestrial Sylvias, all living mostly on the 

 ground, where they run with facility, never hopping lilte most Oscines. They are 

 usually gregarious ; are insectivorous and migratory. They have gained their 

 name from the characteristic habit of moving the tail with a peculiar see-saw 

 motion, as if they were using it to balance themselves upon unsteady footing. 

 They may be distinguished from all the foregoing birds, except Alaudidce, by 

 having only nine primaries ; and from all the following birds by having long flow- 

 ing inner secondaries ; and from Alaudidce, with which they agree in this respect, 

 as well as in usually having a lengthened, straightish hind claw, by havino- the 

 tarsal envelope as in Oscines generally, slender bill and exposed nostrils. Two 



KEY To K. A. BIRDS. 12 



