HORNED LARK AND ITS VARIETIES 189 



Fledglings, just from the nest, are altogether different from the adults. 

 They have the upper parts dusky, mixed with some yellowish-browu, and 

 8j)rinkled all over with whitish or light tawny dots, each feather having a 

 terminal speck. Most of the wing- and tail-feathers have rusty, tawny, or 

 whitish edging and tipping. The under parts are white, mottled with the 

 colors of the upper parts along the sides and across the back. There are no 

 traces of definite black markings about the head and breast, nor is there any 

 yellow tinge. Bill and feet pale or yellowish. This peculiar speckled stage 

 Is of brief duration ; with an early autumnal change, a dress, little if at all 

 different ffom that of the adults in winter, is acquired. 



■piG. 25.— Horned Lark. 



Var. leucolwma. — Size of the foregoing. General coloration extremely 

 pale — brownish-gray, the peculiar pinkish tint of certain parts sharing the 

 general pallor. Black markings on head and breast much restricted in 

 extent, and white surroundings correspondingly increased — thus, the black 

 postfrontal bar is scarcely or not broader than the white of the forehead. 

 No yellow about the head, excepting usually a slight tinge on the chin. 

 The changes of plumage are parallel with those already given ; even the 

 nestlings show the same decided pallor. 



Var. chrysolcBma. — Smaller than either of the foregoing : ^ with the wing 

 scarcely or not 4, and other dimensions to correspond ; a very small speci- 

 men before me, probably 9 > lias the wing only 3| ; in another, marked g , 

 it is3f. The "pink;sb" tinge intensified into cinnamon-brown, and pervad- 

 ing nearly all the upper parts. Yellow of the head intensified, and the 

 black markings very lieavy— the black on the crown often or usually widens 

 to occupy more than half of the cap, reducing the white frontlet to a mere 

 trace. 



As I remarked in the " Birds of the Northwest ", the question of the rela- 

 tionships of our Larks is rather intricate, though we probably have an 

 ai)proximately correct solution of the difficulty. Probably no authors of 

 repute now undertake to maintain any of the supposed or alleged differences 

 between the ordinary North American bird and that of Europe and Asia. 

 (It may here be remarked parenthetically that in any event our bird is 

 to hear the name dZpestris, that having been based by Linnfeus upon the 

 " Lark " of Catesby — a new name, if any, being required for the European 

 bird.) This form is dispersed, at one or another season, over most of North 

 America, breeding far north (I have specimens from the Arctic coastj and 



