LARKS. FAMILY ALAUDIDÆ
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. 7¼.
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. 7¾) 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.
CROWS, JAYS, ETC. FAMILY CORVIDÆ
BLUE JAY
Cyanocitta cristata cristata. [Case 2], Fig. 20