d without knowing the locality in which it was taken.
The present variety build their nests on the ground generally under
tufts of grass or in hollows in the moss which is found in their
breeding range, making them of dried grasses and generally lining them
with feathers. The eggs are grayish with a slight greenish tinge, and
are specked and spotted over the whole surface with drab, brownish and
dark lavender. The eggs of this and the next variety average
considerably larger than those of the more southerly distributed
varieties; size .92 x .65.

474a. PALLID HORNED LARK. _Otocoris alpestris arcticola._

Range.--Breeds in Alaska and winters south to Oregon and Montana.

This is the largest of the Horned Larks and has the throat white, with
no trace of yellow. Its nest is built in similar locations and the eggs
are like those of the preceding species.

[Illustration 299: Grayish.]
[Illustration: Horned Lark.]
[Illustration: deco.]
[Illustration: right hand margin.]

Page 298

474b. PRAIRIE HORNED LARK. _Otocoris alpestris praticola._

Range.--Breeds in the Mississippi Valley from Illinois north to Manitoba
and east to the Middle States; winters south to Carolina and Texas.

This sub-species is considerably smaller than the Horned Lark, and the
throat is paler yellow, while the line over the eye and the forehead is
white. They are the most abundant and have the most extended range of
any of the better known species. In the Mississippi Valley, where they
are of the most common of the nesting birds, they build on the ground in
meadows or cultivated fields, and very often in cornfields; the nests
are made of grasses and lined with horse hairs or feathers, and placed
in slight hollows generally under a tuft of grass or sods. They raise
two broods a season and sometimes three, laying the first set of eggs in
March and another in June or July. The three or four eggs have an olive
buff ground and are thickly sprinkled with drab and lavender; size .83 x
.60.

474c. DESERT HORNED LARK. _Otocoris alpestris leucolaema._

Range.--Plains of western United States, east of the Rockies and west of
Kansas and Dakota; breeds north to Alberta, and winters south to Mexico,
Texas and southern California.

This species is like _praticola_, but paler on the back; nest and eggs
the same.

474d. TEXAS HORNED LARK. _Otocoris alpestris giraudi._

Range.--Coast of southeastern Texas.

A pale variety like _leucolaema_, but sm