448 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
LARKS: Family Alaudidae 
The Horned Larks, our American representatives of the lark 
family, are such terrestrial birds that they rarely light in trees but 
live and nest on the ground and walk or run instead of hop, their 
tarsus being peculiarly scaled and their feet having long, straight, 
hind claws. Their earth-colored plumage, which varies protectively 
in shade with the color of the soil the species frequent, is offset by black 
directive marks, erectile tufts or “horns,” black shield, and tail feathers. 
Their bills are compressed conoid, acute, the nostrils completely 
concealed by feathers—a useful protection, perhaps, as they live on 
wind-swept arid plains, dusting instead of bathing themselves. 
DESERT HORNED LARK: Otdcoris alpestris leucolaema (Coues) 
Plate 45 
Description. — Male: Length (skins), 6.2-G.4 inches, wing 4-4.3, tail 2.7-3, bill 
.4-5, tarsus .8-9. Female: Length (skins), 5.7-6 inches, wing 3.7-4, tail 2.3-2.6, 
bill .3-.4, tarsus .8. General coloration extremely pale. Adult male in breeding 
plumage: Front of crown , horn-like tufts, cheek stripe, and chest shield black; forehead, 
and stripe over eye, usually yellow, sometimes white; back of head and neck, bend of 
wing, and upper tail coverts, pinkish cinnamon; back, wings, and middle pair of tail 
feathers dark brown, edged with buffy; rest of tail brownish black, outside pair edged 
with white; throat yellowish white; rest of underparts white, sides and flanks shaded 
with cinnamon. Adult female in breeding plumage: Similar to adult male, but 
black of head replaced by brownish and buffy, back of neck, bend of wing, and upper 
tail coverts cinnamon without pinkish tinge, back of neck narrowly streaked; line 
over eye and ears buffy; sides and flanks streaked with dusky. Adult male in winter 
plumage: Like the summer male but black areas obscured and upperparts more uni¬ 
form, the brownish areas more pinkish, those on back of head and neck with grayish 
tips, line over eyes yellow, throat deeper yellow; breast marked with dusky; sides and 
flanks darker. Adult female in winter plumage: Like summer female but all black 
areas obscured; upperparts more uniform and more buffy ochraceous; breast strongly 
tinged with buff and spotted with pale dusky. Young in Juvenal plumage: Upperparts 
dull brownish yellow, feathers with subterminal bar of brown and spot or bar of 
white or buffy; line over eye buffy, throat and sides of head spotted, throat sometimes 
tinged with yellow, breast with admixture of black, belly whitish. 
Comparisons. —The Horned Larks, with their generally similar color pattern, 
which varies slightly, not only in the different subspecies but also in the various 
plumages of season, sex, and age, are so extremely difficult to identify, especially 
outside of the breeding season, w r hen they occur together, that all specimens collected 
should be sent to a natural history museum or to the U. S. Biological Survey where 
there is adequate material for comparison of measurements and plumage. 
Range. Breeds in southern Alberta and interior of western United States, from 
western to central Montana south to ccntral-W'cstern Texas, eastern and central- 
southern New Mexico, southern Utah, and southern Nevada; winters south to south¬ 
eastern California, Sonora, Chihuahua, and southern Texas. 
State Records. The Horned Lark is a common breeder on the plains and in 
the lower parts of the mountains in New' Mexico. On July 27, 1820, Major Long’s 
Expedition to the Rocky Mountains reported several shorelarks seen on the upper 
part of the Mora River (James, 1823, Vol. II, p. 80). Four forms occur, three forms 
