LARKS 
349 
Buntings, and flocks may contain numbers of our resident Shore Lark, 
O. a. praticola. 
474b. ©. a. praticola Hensh. Prairie Horned Lark. Similar to 
the preceding, but smaller and somewhat paler, with the forehead and line 
over the eye white instead of yellow, the throat but slightly tinged with 
yellow, and sometimes entirely white. 
L., 7-25; “W., 4*08; T., 2*86; B. from 
N., *37” (Dwight). 
Range. — NE. U. S. and Canada. 
Breeds chiefly in Transition zone from 
s. Man. and s. Que. to e. Kans., s. Mo., 
Ohio, W. Va., and Conn.; winters s. to 
Tex., Tenn., and Ga., and casually to 
Ariz. and Colo. 
Washington, common W. V., Aug. 
1 1-Apl. Cambridge, one record. N. Ohio, 
common P. R. Glen Ellyn, common 
P. R. SE. Minn., S. R., Mch.-Nov., a 
few in mild winters. 
Nesting date, Buffalo, N. Y., Mch. 9; 
se. Minn., Mch. 10. 
This is one of the birds that has 
changed its range since the settlement of America. It is properly a 
species of the prairies and open barrens, but since the once-continuous 
forest of the older States and provinces has been broken up, it has 
made its appearance in the East, wherever the country is suited to its 
requirements. 
It is strictly a ground bird, never perching on trees, though it com- 
monly alights on the top of a fence-post or other low, level surface. 
When encountered on a pathway it often runs before the pedestrian 
after the manner of the Vesper Sparrow, from which bird, however, 
it may be distinguished by the black feathers in its tail, by its brown 
back, and by the black marks on its face; also by the fact that it runs, 
but does not hop, and when it flies it usually utters a whistle, whereas 
the Vesper Sparrow invariably flies off in silence. 
Its chief song is poured forth in the air as it soars aloft, like a Sky- 
lark; but it often utters this same song while perched on some clod or 
stone, especially just before dawn and after sunset, as well as in the 
springtime, while the snow is yet on the ground. 
Ernest Thompson Seton. 
474k. O. a. hoyti Bishop . Hoyt's Horned Lark. “Similar to 0. a. 
alpestris but with the upperparts generally paler and more gray, the posterior 
auriculars gray rather than brown, and the yellow of the head and neck 
replaced by white, excepting the forehead, which is dirty greenish white, 
and the throat, which is distinctly yellow, most pronounced toward the 
center. . . . The adult female in spring plumage differs in a similar man- 
ner from the female of alpestris, but in the female of hoyti the yellow on the 
throat is much paler than in the male.”- W., 4*35. (Bishop.) 
Range. — Cen. N. Am. Breeds n. of limit of trees from mouth of the 
Mackenzie to w. shore of Hudson Bay; winters s. to Nev., Utah, Kans., and 
Mich. ; casual in Ohio and N. Y. 
' S //0 
Fig. 96. Prairie Horned Lark. 
(Natural size.) 
