JAYS 195 



Food feafttis.— Nearly four-fifths of the horned lark's food 

 consists of vegetable matter, about half of which is grain- 

 mainly wheat and oats — and the remainder weed seed. In- 

 sects constitute about one-fifth of the total food, and include 

 beetles, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, ants, flies, and 

 wasps. The birds occasionally damage newly sown grain 

 fields, but in the main are considered beneficial in their food 

 habits.^ 



PRAIRIE HORNED LARK: Otocoris alpestris praticola 



Henshaw. 



State records. — McCormack speaks of the prairie horned 

 lark as a common winter resident at Leighton, "arriving about 

 the first of November and remaining until March, frequenting 

 weedy fields and pastures." As he has not preserved any 

 specimens, however, it is impossible to say which of the two 

 subspecies, alpestris or praticola, is the more common. From 

 a flock at Greensboro, January 20, 1893, Dr. Avery took a 

 single specimen of this form — ^the only definite record from 

 the State. 



CROWS, JAYS, ETC.: Family Corvidae. 



SOUTHERN BLUE JAY: Cya/nocitta cristata cristata 



(Linnaeus) .* 



State records. — The southern and smaller race of the blue 

 jay occupies the whole of Alabama and is one of the most 

 abundant birds at all seasons. Breeding specimens have been 

 examined from Monte Sano (near Huntsville) , Sand Mountain 

 (Jackson County), Guntersville, Elkmont, Leighton, Wilson- 

 ville, and Choccolocco Mountain (near Anniston) ; specimens 

 have been taken at other seasons at Mobile, Orange Beach, 

 Catherine, Autaugaville, Greensboro, and Auburn. Speci- 

 mens taken at Leighton, March 30, 1912, and at Muscle Shoals, 

 April 23 and 24, 1914, are intermediate between this form and 

 the northern race (bromia). At the last-named locality, blue 

 jays were very abundant on the dates mentioned, on the tim- 



tConsult McAUe, Biol. Surv. Bull 28, 190B. 



•Cyanocitfa cristata florincola of the A. O. U. Check-list; for change of name see 

 The Auk, vol. 38, p. 83, 1921. 



