252 LARKS. 
     
    
   
   
    
     FAMILY ALAUDIDIE. LARKS. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The Horned Larks are the only representatives of this family found 
     
     in America. About one hundred species, of which the Skylark is the 
     
     best known, are found in the Old-World. 
     
    

    
     They are terrestrial birds, generally colored in harmony with their 
     
     haunts, and, except during the nesting season, are usually found in 
     
    
   
   
    
     flocks. 
     
    
   
   
    
     474. Otocoris alpestrls* (Lima). IIonNEn LARK; SHORE LARK. 
     
     AJ. 6 .——Forehead, line over the eye, ear region, and throat sulphur-yellow; 
     
     fore part of the crown, a tuft of elongated feathers on either side of the head, 
     
     a mark from the bill below the eye and then downward to the side of the 
     
     throat, and a patch on the breast black; back of the head and neck and rump 
     
     vinaceous, more or less washed with grayish brown ; back grayish brown, edged 
     
     with brownish ash and tinged with vinaceous; wing-eovcrts deep vinaceous; 
     
     tail black, the outer vanes of the outer feathers margined with white, the middle 
     
     feathers broadly margined with brownish and vinaceous; lower breast and belly 
     
     white, the former more or less soiled with dusky spots ; sides vinaceous. Ad. 9 . 
     
     —Similar, but the markings, especially those of the head, loss sharply defined, 
     
     neck less vinaeeous, etc. Fall and winter specimens—Similar, but with the 
     
     black markings veiled by yellowish or whitish tips to the feathers. L., 7'75 ; 
     
     “ W., 427; T., 2'84; B. from N., '40” (Dwight). 
     
    

    
     Range—Breeds in “northern Europe, Greenland, Newfoundland, Labra- 
     
     dor, and Hudson Bay region ; southward in winter into eastern United States 
     
     to about lat. 35° ” (Dwight). 
     
    

    
     Washington, common W. V., Nov. to Mch. or Apl. Sing Sing, casual 
     
     W. V. Cambridge, common T. V., Oct. 25 to Nov. 25; Mch. 25 to Apl. 5. 
     
    

    
     Mat, of grasses, on the ground. Eggs, three to four, pale bluish or greenish 
     
     white, minutely and evenly speckled with pale grayish brown, ‘84 x ~60. 
     
    
   
   
    
     These hardy birds visit us in flocks in the winter. They frequent 
     
     the vicinity of the seacoast or large, flat, open tracts in the interior, 
     
     and are rarely found in well-wooded regions. They are terrestrial, 
     
     and may be seen running over the snow or barren ground in scattered 
     
     companies. They take wing with a sharp, whistled note, and seek 
     
     fresh fields or, hesitating, finally swing about and return to near the 
     
     spot from which they were flushed. They are sometimes found asso- 
     
     ciated with Snowflakes, and flocks may contain numbers of our resi- 
     
     dent Shore Lark, 0. a. pmticola. 
     
    
   
   
    
     4741). 0. an pratlcola. flensh. PRAIRIE HORNED Lung—Similar 
     
     to the preceding species, but smaller and somewhat paler, with the forehead 
     
     and line over the eye white instead of yellow, the throat but slightly tinged 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     * See an important paper on the relationships and distribution of the Ameri- 
     
     can representatives of this genus, by Dr. J. Dwight, Jr., in The Auk, vii, 1890, 
     
     pp. 138-158.