The Horned Larks 
the cliff-side, and from beneath the second summons fluttered the fright¬ 
ened Pipit. Five beautiful eggs, of a warm weathered oak, rather than 
mahogany shade, lay in an elegant nest of compacted grasses, wholly 
within the shelter of a niche in the rock. A tussock of grass clung just 
below, and a dwarf shrub afforded a touch of drapery above; while from 
the outstretched hand a flint-flake might have fallen clean of the wall, 
to the ice a hundred feet below. The male bird continued his outcries 
from the distant cliff, but the female at no time reappeared. 
With the advance of summer, the Pipits lead their broods about the 
disrobed peaks, even to the very summits, as do the noble Leucostictes. 
Knowing this, we may readily excuse any little eccentricities which appear 
in our friends during the duller seasons. The Pipit is a good fellow, after 
all. 
No. 162 
Horned Lark 
No. 162a California Horned Lark 
A. O. U. No. 474f. Otocoris alpestris actia Oberholser. 
Description. — Adult male in spring and simmer: Fore-crown and sides of crown, 
including upper feathers of the supra-auricular tufts (the “horns"), a patch on sides of 
head including nasal tufts and lores and curving downward on cheeks, and a broad 
patch on jugulum, glossy black; chin and throat, sides of head behind malar patch, 
continuous with superciliaries and extreme forehead, white, more or less tinged with 
primrose yellow (lemon-yellow to strontian yellow), the yellow always present on chin 
and upper throat, and sometimes suffusing the entire area; occiput, cervix, sides of neck, 
anterior portion of wing, and sides of breast, rich vinaceous brown (nearest mikado 
brown, but ranging from pecan-brown to fawn-color); a lighter shade of the same on 
upper tail-coverts; the sides and flanks sparingly marked with mingled vinaceous and 
dusky; remaining upperparts, including wings and central pair of tail-feathers, fuscous 
to dusky, w T ashed or fringed with vinaceous, or fading on edges of feathers to grayish 
brown; outer edge of first primary and outermost rectrix white; remainder of tail 
brownish black; remaining underparts white, faintly glossed with vinaceous; axillars 
and lining of wings pure white. Bill bluish black above, paling on mandible basally; 
feet brownish black; iris dark brown. Adult male in fall and winter: Duller, the yellow 
of head fully distributed and duller (as by admixture of neutral gray); the black areas 
of head slightly veiled by yellowish skirtings; the vinaceous of cervix, etc., less pure, 
reduced as though by wear, leaving more extensive dusky; the middle coverts lightly 
tipped with white. Adult female in spring and summer: Like adult male in spring, but 
much duller; the vinaceous of upperparts much reduced, approximately pure only on 
sides of neck, sides of breast, lesser wing-coverts, and upper tail-coverts; crown like 
back, i. e., dusky vinaceous skirtings; patch on sides of head, only faintly indicated, 
dusky and fulvous; black of jugulum reduced in area and invaded by whitish or vinace- 
