PRAIRIE HORNED LARK

_Otocoris alpestris praticola. Case 2, Fig. 42_

Note the long hind-toe nail (or the track it

leaves), the little feathered 'horns,' the black

patch on cheeks and breast (less evident in

winter). Smaller than the Northern Horned Lark,

which visits the United States only in winter,

with the line over the eye white, and throat but

faintly tinged with yellow. L. 7-1/4.

_Range._ Nests in the Upper Mississippi Valley

from Missouri and in the Atlantic States

(locally), from Connecticut northward; winters

southward to Texas and Georgia. The Horned Lark

(_Otocoris alpestris alpestris_), is a more

northern race, nesting in the Arctic regions and

migrating southward as far as Ohio and rarely

Georgia, when it is often associated with the

resident Prairie Horned Lark. It is larger than

that race (L. 7-3/4) and has the throat and line

over the eye yellow.

Washington, common W.V., Aug. 11-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.

A bird of open places--shores, plains, and prairies, and roadways--who

runs (not hops) nimbly ahead of one, or, with a short note, rises, and

on its long, pointed wings, flies on ahead. He usually returns to the

ground, but may alight on a fence; his long hind toe-nail not being

suited to grasping a small perch. The weak, twittering song is uttered

on the wing, when the bird, like its relative the Skylark, mounts into

the air. It also sings from a perch near the ground.

The Prairie Horned Lark is the first of our small birds to nest, making

its home on the ground and laying four finely speckled eggs early in

March. After the nesting season the birds gather in flocks.