J 94 
Allen and Brewster on Colorado Birds. 
[October 
hence representing the resident form, show's only a limited amount of 
individual variation, the characteristic style of color and markings being- 
very uniformly presented. The general coloring is very pale — quite up 
to the standard of typical leucolcema , and the peculiar pinkish of certain 
parts is bleached to a nearly obsolete tint. The black shield on the 
breast is restricted to the minimum size, but the black bar on the crown 
is always at least twice the width of the white on the forehead, or quite 
as broad as in alpestris and chrysolcema. The throat is usually pale 
yellow but there is never any yellow on the breast, and rarely any 
on the forehead or sides of the head. Only one example has a pure 
white throat, but in several the yellow is restricted to a mere tinge on the 
chin. 
These specimens are uniformly smaller than eastern examples of 
alpestris , and hence smaller than typical examples of leucolcema which, 
according to Dr. Coues, should be about the size of alpestris. The 
measurements of an average Colorado specimen are as follows : Wing, 
4.20; tail, 2.98; tarsus, .82; culmen from feathers, .46. 
In “Birds of the Colorado Valley” (p. 187), Dr. Coues gives the 
breeding range of E. leucolcema as “plains of the United States, north 
of about 40 0 ,” and refers all the birds which breed south of this parallel, 
to the eastward as well as westward of the Rocky Mountains, to var. 
chrysolcema. This arrangement seems to me questionable. In a series 
of nearly one hundred Horned Larks from various points on the plains 
east of the Rocky Mountains, I find only a slight variation with latitude. 
There is, to be sure, a gradual diminution in size from north to south 
but this is not accompanied by any decided changes of color, and, 
making allowance for local variations, the region at large, between the 
Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River and the British and Mexican 
boundaries, furnishes a style which in its generally pallid coloration and 
restricted markings fulfills the essential characters of variety leucolcema. 
Furthermore the Horned Lark of Colorado and New Mexico (represented 
in my series by breeding specimens from Santa Fe), is a widely different 
bird from the bright-colored form which we get from California, and 
which passes current as typical chrysolcema. Whether this California 
race is really identical with the chrysolcejna of Mexico or not I have no 
present means of judging, but if it be so, the alternative with the birds 
just discussed is to call them all leucolcema , or to separate the southern 
representatives under a new name. If the latter are true chrysolcema 
the California form must be re-named. In either case the California 
and Colorado forms cannot be considered identical. 
The proper position of the Horned Larks which breed east of the 
Mississippi in the United States is also a matter that requires further 
investigation. Such specimens have been usually referred to alpestris , 
but all that I have differ considerably from that form. Four examples 
taken at Ann Arbor, Michigan, have scarcely any yellow about the head, 
and in one of them the throat and chin are pure white. Specimens 
from Southern Illinois are rather smaller and richer colored, but still 
