280 Birds of Colorado 
268; Henderson 03, p. 235; 09, p. 233; Dille 03, p. 74; Warren 04, 
p- 6; 06,p.6; 08, p. 21; 09, p. 15; McAttie 05, p. 1; Markman 07, 
p. 157; Gilman 07, p. 155. 
Description.—Male in breeding dress; above sandy-brown, streaked 
with darker, becoming pinkish on the occiput and hind-neck ; top of 
the head black, prolonged back into two points slightly erectile above 
the ears; forehead and eyebrows white or very pale yellow; malar 
stripe below the eye and band across the chest black; throat very 
pale yellow; below white, slightly soiled, tinged with vinaceous on 
the sides of the breast and flanks. Length 6-0; wing 4:10; tail 2-7; 
culmen -42; tarsus -75. ‘ 
In winter the males as a rule are brighter yellow on the throat and 
forehead, and the black is dulled by the paler tips to the feathers of 
those parts ; by the wear of these tips the breeding plumage is acquired. 
The female is smaller than the male—wing 3-75, and has, as a rule, 
little or no trace of the black head-mark, while the malar and breast 
stripes are much less conspicuous ; the back is brown, streaked from 
the vertex to the rump, and there is no pink nape area. A female killed 
in August, probably a young bird after the first moult, has the breast 
mark quite concealed by the paler tips of the feathers, while below 
this is a pale buffy-brown area across the lower breast. Above, it is 
brown throughout, streaked with darker, and more richly coloured 
than the winter female. A nestling is pale buffy above, conspicuously 
spotted with white. 
Distribution.—Breeding in the great plains and Rocky Mountain 
region of the western United States, from western Kansas and Nebraska 
north to Alberta, west to Nevada, and south to western Texas, both 
on the plains and in the mountains, wintering in Colorado and south- 
wards perhaps to northern Mexico and south-eastern California. 
In eastern Colorado this little bird is one of the most common resident 
species throughout the year. During the winter it is to be met with all 
over the eastern half of the State, very commonly on the open prairie, 
and it extends up into the lower parks (recorded by Drew in Baker’s 
Park, San Juan co., at about 9,500 feet in winter; by Tresz at Fairplay 
in December, and by Warren, near Mosca, in January). In summer it 
moves up more freely into the mountains, and is found everywhere in 
suitable localities up to timber line (Bergin Park, above timber line, 
Trippe ; timber line, near Crested Bute, Warren), as well as in the eastern 
plains. In Mesa co. on the western slope, it is more common in winter 
than in summer, and Rockwell believes that the winter birds go north 
to breed. 
Habits—The Horned Lark is found on the open tree- 
less plains and on high mesas, often far away from 
