soon a familiar bird. On the dry westei-n prairies it is everywhere met with, especially 

 in winter. Being residents wherever they occur, the Shore Larks do not migrate like 

 most other birds, but they move over a considerable territory in quest of food regardless 

 of the condition of weather. Heavy snowfalls have the effect of driving them to regions 

 where the ground can be searched for food, which consists mainly of all kinds, of weed 

 and grass seeds. Fields, pastures, and upland meadows are the favorite haunts of 

 these Larks, but they are nowhere more abundant than on and near the country roads. 

 In summer we may see them running along the wagon tracks or taking their dust 

 baths, and in winter there is scarcely a better place to search for food, than the much 

 frequented country road. During winter they are seen in flocks of from ten to fifty and 

 more, but during the breeding season they only live in pairs. When disturbed they run 

 along in the road for quite a considerable distance, and then disappear suddenly among 

 the grass and weeds on the road-side, or they perch on a fence. They are pre-eminently 

 ground birds, scarcely ever alighting on trees or bushes. 



Of all our smaller birds the Horned Lark is the first bird to breed. As early as 

 April 4, when many places are still covered with snow and the ground is frozen hard, 

 full complements of eggs have been found in Wisconsin, and by the middle of that month 

 I have met young in northern Illinois able to leave the nest. In south-western Missoiiri 

 they breed by the middle of March. The nest is always placed in a slight depression 

 of the ground, usually under a tuft of grass. It is built of grasses and pieces of corn- 

 leaves, and is often lined with hair and feathers. When a second or third brood follows 

 later in the season, these warm materials are not employed so extensively in the con- 

 struction of the domicile. The rim of the nest is usually flush with the surface of the 

 ground. It is not an easy matter to find the nest, but it is often discovered accidentally 

 while sauntering about in fields, meadows, pastures, and the prairie. The eggs, four to 

 five in number, vary in their ground-color from pale olive or light greenish to dull olive- 

 buff, and are always thickly spotted and sprinkled with brown and drab. The eggs of 

 six different varieties of Shore Larks in the "Goss Collection of North American Birds' 

 Eggs," in the Public Museum of Milwaukee, are all more or less similar to each other. 

 The young leave the nest long before they are able to use their wings, running along 

 on the ground like small chickens just hatched. 



The song is frequently uttered in May and June from early morning until evening,, 

 both on the ground and high up in the air. It sounds exceedingly sweet and would be 

 very beautiful were it not so weak. It is scarcely audible in a distance of a hundred 

 yards, and it always sounds very ventriloquous, so that it is difficult to say whether the 

 bird is on the ground or in the air. 



Those desirous to know more about the different varieties of these birds and 

 their geographical distribution, I refer to Mr. Jonathan Dwight's valuable paper on 

 "The Horned Larks of North America" in "The Auk" for 1890 (p. 138—160). 



The true Horned Lark, Otocoris alpestris Bon ap., is distributed over north-eastern 

 North America, Greenland, and the northern parts of the old world. It winters south 

 to Wisconsin, Illinois, and the Carolinas. 



The Pallid Horned Lark, 0. alpestris leucolsema Stejn., inhabits the interior of 

 British America and Alaska, and is found in the western United States in winter. 



