A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 2. Robert Ridgway

Чтение книги онлайн.

      b. Specimens from coast of Oregon and Washington Territory. Streaks on back, etc., very conspicuous; dark central stripe of tail-feathers distinct; yellow beneath.

      Measurements. (8,734 ♂, Fort Steilacoom,) wing, 3.75; tail, 2.60; bill, .61—.15—.40.

      Hab. Middle America, from the desert regions of the southern Middle Province of North America, south to Bogota.

      Habits. Assuming the Shore Lark of the Labrador coast and the rufous Lark of the Western prairies to be one and the same species, but slightly modified by differences of locality, climate, or food, we have for this species, at all times, a wide range, and, during the breeding-season, a very unusual peculiarity,—their abundant distribution through two widely distant and essentially different regions.

      During a large portion of the year, or from October to April, these birds may be found in all parts of the United States. Dr. Woodhouse found them very common throughout Texas, the Indian Territory, New Mexico, and California. Mr. Dresser states that he found the western variety—which he thinks essentially different in several respects from the eastern—in great numbers, from October to the end of March, in the prairies around San Antonio. Afterwards, at Galveston, in May and June, 1864, he noticed and shot several specimens. Although he did not succeed in finding any nests, he was very sure that they were breeding there. It is common, during winter, on the Atlantic coast, from Massachusetts to South Carolina. In Maine it is comparatively rare. In Arizona, Dr. Coues speaks of the western form as a permanent resident in all situations adapted to its wants. The same writer, who also had an opportunity of observing the eastern variety in Labrador, where he found it very abundant on all the moss-covered islands around the coast, could notice nothing in their voice, flight, or general manners, different from their usual habits in their southern migrations, except that during the breeding-season they do not associate in flocks.

      Richardson states that this Lark arrives in the fur countries in company with the Lapland Bunting, with which it associates, and, being a shyer bird, would act as sentinel and give the alarm on the approach of danger. As Mr. Dall only obtained a single skin on the Yukon, it probably is not common there. Dr. Suckley states it to be a very abundant summer resident on the gravelly prairies near Fort Steilacoom, in Washington Territory. He describes it as a tame, unsuspicious bird, allowing a man to approach within a few feet of it. It is essentially a ground bird, rarely alighting on bushes or shrubs.

      Dr. Cooper adds to this that the Shore Lark is common in the interior, but he only noticed one on the coast border. In ordinary seasons they seem to be permanent residents, and in winter to be both more gregarious and more common. He met with one as late as July 1, on a gravelly plain near Olympia, scratching out a hollow for its nest under a tussock of grass.

      Dr. Cooper also found these birds around Fort Mohave in considerable flocks about the end of February, but all had left the valley by the end of March. About May 29 he found numbers of them towards the summits of the Providence range of mountains, west of the valley, and not far from four thousand feet above it, where they probably had nests. They were also common in July on the cooler plains towards the ocean, so that they doubtless breed in many of the southern portions of California, as well as at Puget Sound and on the Great Plains. Dr. Cooper states that in May or June the males rise almost perpendicularly into the air, until almost out of sight, and fly around in an irregular circle, singing a sweet and varied song for several minutes, when they descend nearly to the spot from which they started. Their nests were usually found in a small depression of the ground, often under a tuft of grass or a bush. Mr. Nuttall started a Shore Lark from her nest, on the plains, near the banks of the Platte. It was in a small depression on the ground, and was made of bent grass, and lined with coarse bison-hair. The eggs were olive-white, minutely spotted all over with a darker tinge.

      According to Audubon, these Larks breed abundantly on the high and desolate granite tracts that abound along the coast of Labrador. These rocks are covered with large patches of mosses and lichens. In the midst of these this СКАЧАТЬ