330 LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



by 0.66 inch. The largest egg in the series measures 25.65 by 17.27 millime- 

 tres, or 1.01 by 0.68 inches; the smallest, 21.08 by 16.26 millimetres, or 0.83 by 

 0.64 inch. 



The type specimen, No. 21833 (PI. 5, Fig. 23), Bendire collection, from a 

 set of four eggs, was taken in Saxony, Europe, on April 20, 1859, and represents 

 one of the darker-colored types of this species. 



125. Otocoris alpestris (Linn^us). 



HORNED LARK. 



Alauda alpestris Linn^us, Systema Naturae, ed. 10, 1, 1758, 166. 

 Otocoris alpestris Bonaparte, Fauna Italiana Uccelli, 1839 (not paged). 



(B 302, C 53, R 300, C 82, U 474.) 



Geographical range : Northeastern North America, from the Province of Kee- 

 watin. Dominion of Canada, both sides of Hudson Bay,»east to Labrador, and south to 

 Newfoundland; also to Greenland and to northern Europe; south iu winter to about lati- 

 tude 38°, and casually somewhat farther south. ' 



The breeding range of the Horned or Shore Lark, the second largest rep- 

 resentative of this genus found in North America, is confined, as far as known 

 at present, to the Province of Keewatin, Dominion of Canada, both shores of 

 Hudson Bay, and the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland. In the latter 

 province it has been met with during the breeding season near its southeastern 

 extremity, at Cape St. Mary, in about latitude 47°, which probably marks about 

 the southern limits of its breeding range. Mr. William Palmer, during the 

 cruise of the United States Fish Commission schooner " Grrampus " in the summer 

 of 1887, met with Horned Larks at the Penguin Islands, west of Cape Freels, 

 and at Canada Bay, Newfoundland, and says: "At the former place (a low, flat, 

 grassy island) several old birds were seen, who during our visit perched on the 

 bowlders that surround the island; and two young birds, which were evidently 

 bred on the island, were collected. At Canada Bay a few old birds were found 

 at the Cloud Hills, at an elevation of nearly 1,000 feet."^ 



Mr. L. M. Turner, in his manuscript notes on the "Birds of Labrador and 

 Ungava," says: "The first individuals of this Lark were seen July 9, 1882, on 

 the top of a high hill on Black Island, in Hamilton Inlet. The birds were 



' In the general treatment of our numerous races of Horned Larks I mainly follow the classification 

 of Mr. Jonathan Dwight, jr., who recently published an excellent synopsis of the genus Otocoris in the 

 Auk (Vol. VXI, 1890, pp. 138-158), to which 1 refer the reader, and which can not be readily improved upon 

 until considerably more material becomes available, especially from the interior and practically unexplored 

 regions lying to the northwest of Hudson Bay, in order to enable anyone to define the geographical ranges 

 of each recognized subspecies more accurately. I am inclined to believe, however, that the range of the 

 present species under consideration will have to be considerably extended to the westward, but with the 

 material now at hand nothing very positive can be determined. Where the ranges of the different subspe- 

 cies approach each other the birds intergrade and intermediate forms are found which cannot be referred 

 to a particular race with any certainty, and as the eggs of the numerous races of the genus Otocoris are prac- 

 tically similar, I have endeavored as far as possible to represent the different styles and markings found in 

 the various subspecies among the types figured. 



i2 Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, Vol. XIII, 1890, p. 262. 



