PERCHING BIRDS 



LARKS. Family ALAUDID^ 



Grayish 



[473.] Skylark, Alauda arvensis. 



Range. — Old World, straggling casually to 

 Greenland and Bermuda. 



This noted foreigner has been imported and 

 liberated a number of times in this country, but 



apparently is not able to 



thrive here, a fact which will 



not cause much regret when 



we remember the experiment 



with the English Sparrow. 



They are abundant in Europe 



and Great Britain where they 



nest on the ground in culti- 

 vated fields or meadows, laying from three to 

 five grayish eggs, marked with browii, drab and 

 lavender. 



474. Horned Lark. 



Otocoris alpestris alpestris. 



Range. — Eastern North America, breeding in 

 Labrador and about Hudson Bay; winters in 

 eastern United States south to Carolina. 



This variety of this much sub-divided species is 7.5 inches in length, has 

 brownish gray upper parts and is white below with black patches on the breast 

 and below the eye, yellowish throat and small black ear tufts. The various sub- 

 species are all marked alike, their distinction being based upon slight differen- 

 ces in size, variations in the shade of the back, or the greater or less intensity 

 of the yellowish throat and superciliary stripe. Tlie nesting habits of all the 

 varieties are the same and the eggs differ only in the shade of the ground color, 

 this variation among the eggs of the same variety being so great that an egg 

 cannot be identified without knowing the locality in which it was taken. The 

 present variety build their nests on the ground generally under tufts of grass 

 or in hollows in the moss which is found in their breeding range, making them 

 of dried grasses and generally lining them with feathers. The egg^ are grayish 

 with a slight greenish tinge, and are specked and spotted over the whole sur- 

 face with drab, brownish and dark lavender. The eggs of this and tlie next 

 variety average considerably larger than those of the more southerly distributed 

 varieties; size .92 x .65. 



Hornerl Lark 



474a. Pallid Horned Lark. Otocoris alpestris arctidola. 



Range. — Breeds in Alaska and winters south to Oregon and Montana. 



This is the largest of the Horned Larks and has the throat white, with no 

 trace of yellow. Its nest is built in similar locations and the eggs are like 

 those of the preceding species. 



