153 



Nesting. On ground, in nest of grass often amidst snow drifts in early spring. 

 Distribution. The Horned Lark in its various forms ranges over aU of North America. 



SUBSPECIES. The Homed Lark is divided into many geographical races or 

 subspecies. It has a very wide range in North America and living under many and varied 

 oon(fitions has developed in different parts of the coimtry along different lines. Thus 

 the desert form is small and pallid or bleached, whereas the northeastern, which is the 

 type form, is large and strongly coloured. The commonest form in eastern Canada is 

 the Prairie Horned Lark 0. a. praticola. Originally when the country was weU wooded 

 this was probably the- prairie form, and did not occur in eastern Canada. The making 

 of clearings, artificial prairies, has permitted it to come east, where it is to-day the breeding 

 form. In the north, east of Hudson bay, occurs the typical or originally described form 

 0. a. alpestris at present without a recognized conmion name and here called the Eastern 

 Homed Lark. This is a large bird with a strong suffusion of yellow over the face and 

 eyebrow line. As the average difference is only about half an inch in total length and 

 as all intermediate sizes occur it can be seen that the differentiation between the forms 

 may be somewhat difficult. An attempt to show the difference in coloration ia made in the 

 illustration. The Eastern Homed Lark occurs within the settled districts of eastern 

 Canada only as a winter migrant and is rare except in the Maritime Provinces where it is 

 probably the common winter form. Another race, Hoyt's Homed Lark O. a. hoyti, is 

 a northern form, breeding west and northwest of Hudson bay. It is about as large as 

 the Eastern and has the general coloration of the prairie form. The brownish instead 

 of greyish ear coverts should identify it, but the difference is not great. This form occurs 

 occasionally in the lower Great Lakes region as a winter migrant. 



The distribution of the various races and their migrations in Canada have not been 

 completely worked out and the difficulty of exact determination is so great that no sub- 

 specific determination should be made without expert assistance and a good series of 

 authenticated specimens for comparison. 



The Horned Lark is a bird of the open, frequenting bare fields, beaches, 

 or roadways. In the winter the seeds of weeds left projecting from the 

 snow are its main food supply, and numbers frequent travelled roads for 

 the weeds that grow at their sides and for the partly digested grain dropped 

 by the horses. Occasionally large winter flocks appear. It is in such 

 cases that the rarer migrant forms should be looked for. 



FAMILY— COEVID^. JAYS AND CEOWS. 



The Crow family is very large and diverse, including many beautiful 

 and highly coloured birds; indeed the famous Bird of Paradise is closely 

 related to this family. The bill (Figure 45, p. 26) is the most easily 

 distinguished character. It is moderately long and stout with a well 

 arched culmen. At the base are tufts of dense, stiff, bristle-like feathers 

 pressed close to it and covering the nostrils. The Woodpeckers and the 

 Titmice have a suggestion of this, but the latter are all small and the 

 former well characterized otherwise. They are not songsters in any 

 sense of the term; their voice is hoarse and raucous, but the complexity 

 of their vocal organs is very great and some of them can be taught to 

 articulate words. They are amongst our most intelligent species and 

 by some authors have been put at the head of the whole avian list. 



Subfamily — Garrulince. Magpies and Jays. 



Medium-sized birds, many of them brilliantly coloured and with 

 ornamental crests and flowing tails. They can be most easily recognized 

 under their specific headings. 



475. Magpie. American magpie, fb. — pie d'am^irique. Pica Pica. L, 15-20. 

 (Tail 10.) Only shghtly larger in body than a Blue Jay but much longer owing to the 



