The Horned Larks 
order emerges from the chaos of rival claims, and little homes begin to 
dot the plain. “Dot” is a good word, although you cannot find a nest as 
easily as you might a • , novice that you are, in a box of printer’s pi. The 
nest is not so much concealed as subordinated, swathed in obscurity. At 
best it does no more than fill the hollow of some cavity, natural or artifi¬ 
cial,—a wheel-rut, a footprint of some horse or cow, a cavity left by an 
upturned stone, or, as in one instance, the bottom of an unused golf hole. 
The number of eggs in a set varies from two to four, three being 
most commonly found. In color the ground is grayish white, while dots 
of greenish gray or reddish gray are now gathered in a heavy wreath 
about the larger end, and now regularly distributed over the entire sur¬ 
face—sometimes so heavily as to obscure the ground. The eggs are 
often very perceptibly glossed and there is frequently a haunting greenish 
or yellowish tinge which diffuses itself over the whole—an atmosphere, 
as the artist would say. 
Horned Larks owe their preservation chiefly to the wariness of 
the female, for she flushes at long distances. Either she will slip off 
quietly and sneak at thirty yards, or else flush straight at a hundred. 
When the nest is discovered, she is quite as likely to ignore the intruder, 
and seldom ventures near enough to betray ownership. On the other 
hand, given patience and a pair of strong binoculars, “tracking” is not a 
difficult accomplishment. Of course the nest is at the mercy of the 
wandering footstep, and if the sufferings of an oologist (intent on a larger 
set) are any index, the bird must endure agonies of apprehension in the 
presence of a grazing herd of cattle, while a flock of sheep spells almost 
certain disaster. 
Golf-links are treasure trove for Horned Larks, and nothing short of 
annihilation will persuade them of the ever recurring dangers. Mr. J. H. 
Bowles records three instances in which larks were killed by flying golf 
balls; and another gentleman, himself a devotee of the game, tells me that 
he once saw a bird struck dead in midair. 
Octoris is, however, a prolific breeder. Two and sometimes three 
broods are raised each season. Nests are also found in June and July at 
altitudes which forbid the supposition that birds could have bred earlier 
in the same locality. It is inferred, therefore, that a partial migration 
occurs after the first nesting. Certainly when the second brood is able to 
move, family parties and neighborhood groups forsake the warm lowlands 
and ascend, sometimes to the very summits of the more exposed peaks. 
Thus, Grinnell found twenty Horned Larks ( 0 . a. actia) on the top of 
San Gorgonio Peak (alt. 11,485) on the 16th of July, 1906. 
At the conclusion of the breeding season large companies assemble, 
sometimes to the number of hundreds. The northern members of the 
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