109 
Due to incompletely grown primaries, the wings are somewhat under size 
for average measurements for this northern race, but the sizes are other- 
wise large. This appears to be the northernmost record for horned larks 
in either Greenland or the Canadian Arctic. Birds thought to be horned 
larks were heard at Ponds inlet on August 24, 1923. 
No horned larks were observed about Cumberland sound in 1924. 
The first larks encountered the following year were seen at Nettilling 
lake on May 28. By the last of May they had become fairly common in 
the vicinity of Takuirbing river and several specimens, all males, were 
taken. At this date it was usual to hear singing high in the air, the song 
in many cases being repeated upon the bird’s return to the earth and while 
perched on the top of a boulder. 
The first female was collected on June 4; the ovaries were very large. 
On June 16 a nest was discovered in a small upland valley near Nettilling 
lake. It was located in low, tundra-like ground, though fairly dry; was 
built into a small depression on the side of a grassy hummock; fashioned 
with a thin layer of dead grasses for the walls, and lined on the bottom with 
white down from the dwarf Arctic willow. The set consisted of five 
eggs. On June 23, a nest was found containing young four or five days 
old. This nest was on a dry, rocky ridge 150 feet above the lake. Two 
days later Constable Tredgold, R.C.M.P., collected a nest, with four 
eggs far advanced in incubation. The number of horned larks in this 
region was surprising, it being estimated that two or three pairs occurred 
to the square mile. Juveniles were observed on the wing for the first 
time on July 15. At this date they were well developed and flying strong. 
After this time the species was much less in evidence. On the voyage on 
Nettilling lake, larks were observed on only three occasions — near Padle 
narrows on August 25; along Amadjuak river on August 27; and a flock 
of six on the shore of Koukjuak river on September 2. The last of the 
season was noted at Amittok lake on September 12. 
The species was sparingly observed at cape Dorset between June 3 
and 10, 1926. It was not again seen along the south coast during the 
remainder of the summer. Evidently the horned lark retires to the in- 
terior of the island to nest. A good series of specimens were collected and 
represent, so far as the writer is aware, the first material of this kind from 
Baffin island. Hantzsch (1914, p. 131) records obtaining two eggs from 
natives at Kekerten in 1909, and notes that this is the first breeding record 
from Baffin island. He saw an adult male at Isoa, Nettilling lake, on June 
25, 1910. 
The present writer collected 36 specimens, the first, so far as known, to 
be brought from Baffin island. The great majority are typical O. a. hoyti , 
are as large as alpestris , but have white eyebrows and much white on face 
and sides of neck. Five specimens from Nettilling lake represent birds 
found associating with the typical O. a. hoyti. These five, if not typical 
breeding alpestris, are much nearer to that race than to hoyti. Amongst 
the specimens are several that are intermediate between these extremes. 
A male specimen taken at Nettilling lake, June 25, has a pure white, 
instead of well-marked yellow, throat and seems indistinguishable from 
typical O. a. arcticola. A few other birds have white feathers in mosaic 
pattern, over the yellow throat, suggesting a mixture of bloods rather 
than a fortuitous development of white feathers. 
644G0 — 8 
