The Prairie Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris praticola) on the Coast of 
Massachusetts. — Looking over a large series of Horned Larks in my 
collection I lately found a pair of perfectly typical O. a. praticola 
labelled “Revere Beach, Massachusetts, February 28, 1883.” Under this 
date my journal has the following entry : “I shot these birds [Nos. 7923, 
7926] with another, a female similar to No. 7926, near the beach in afield 
where the ground was partly bare of snow. There were only three of 
them in all. The testes of the male were of large size but the ovaries of the 
females not correspondingly developed.” 
The female “similar to No. 7926” was badly shot, if I remember right, 
and not suspecting at the time (fully a year, it should be noted, before the 
appearance of Mr. Henshaw’s admirable paper on the genus Otocoris) that 
it was anything more than a small dark specimen of O. alpestris, I doubt- 
less threw it away. The fact that praticola has been found breeding 
within less than twenty-five miles of the western boundary of Massachu- 
setts,* taken in connection with that of the captures above recorded, makes 
it seem not improbable that the form in question may occur regularly, if 
rarely, in Eastern Massachusetts during the migrations, and perhaps as a 
summer resident in the extreme western portions of the State. — William 
Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. Auk> y Jan 1888> p 
Second Occurrence of the Prairie Horned Lark in Eastern Massachu- 
setts. — In recording* not long since the capture of three specimens 
of Otocoris alpestris praticola at Revere Beach, Massachusetts, I ventured 
to suggest that this form might prove to be a regular if rare migrant 
through the eastern portions of our State. Some added probability is 
given this surmise by the fact that I have just taken two more perfectly 
typical examples of praticola at Great Island near Hyannis, Mass., Dec. 
15, 1888. Both are males, one an old, the other a young bird. They 
were in flocks of O. alpestris which very possibly contained still other 
specimens of praticola, but I had neither time nor inclination to settle 
this point definitely by shooting a large number of birds, the only possi- 
sible way, for the two forms could not be distinguished when living. As 
it was I killed twenty-three alpestris to get the two praticola, but none of 
the former were wasted. — William Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 
Auk, VI. J it., 1889, p. 7/-7Z, 
*Auk, Vol V, No. 1, JaD., 1888, pp. hi , 112. 
S t ^UAA/3- | OT 
Otocoris alpestris praticola. — A flock of about twenty-five Prairie 
Horned Larks passed last winter in Longmeadow, just south of Spring- 
field ; their presence in this vicinity has never been recorded before. 
Auk, XVI, Jan., 1859, 
Otocoris alpestris praticola at Ipswich, Mass. — -On October 26, 1899, 
at Ipswich, Mass., with Dr. Walter Faxon and Mr. G. M. Allen, I took a 
male Prairie Horned Lark out of a flock of four birds (two others were 
also seen later), the other three appearing to be of the same race. The 
specimen taken seems of especial interest, as its measurements and pale- 
ness make it approach very nearly to arenicola, — the specimen being 
almost intermediate as it is. Mr. Harry C. Oberholser and Mr. William 
Brewster, and all who have examined the bird, are of the opinion, how- 
ever, that it is perhaps nearest praticola, and must be called such. Geo- 
graphically of course, the bird is praticola , for if arenicola it is a straggler 
far out of its usual range. — Reginald Heber Howe, Tr., Long-wood, 
Mass. Auk, XVII, April, 1900 , p , t jh 
