Greetings,

Here is an e-mail and the response that I sent to Dennis Paulson concerning
Horned Larks in Washington.


Hi Dennis,
Sorry to bug you again. I am trying to learn what I can about Horned Larks
in the state. In your Sibley Comments you say this about HOLA "So we have
four subspecies, three of which breed in the state". The literature= BNA
Account#195;Jewett,1953; and the AOU checklist 1957 all say 5 subspecies
occur in the state. Is one of these five subspecies not a good subspecies or
does not occur here.
Pallid Horned Lark - Eremophila alpestris arcticola
Alpine Horned Lark - E. a. alpina
Streaked Horned Lark - E. a. strigata
Dusky Horned Lark - E. a. merrilli
Warner Horned Lark - E. a. lamprochroma

As a special treat for answering this question, I will show you the very
best photo of a hola I can find on the net...from Montana!

http://www.roysephotos.com/HornedLark.html

Thanks,
Dave Beaudette
Wenatchee,WA
drtbrdr at earthlink.net

Hi Dave,

I know merrilli and lamprochroma have long been listed as both
breeding in eastern WA. I haven't discounted that, but I guess I
took it upon myself to synonymize lamprochroma with merrilli.
Lamprochroma is one of the races described by Harry Oberholser, who
was known as an extreme splitter (as were many taxonomists of his
day). Even the AOU checklist says that specimens from far eastern WA
aren't typical of the subspecies they're supposed to be (I guess
merrilli).

I'm sure Robert Beason, who wrote the BNA account, didn't critically
reassess what has been published, depending on monographs that
are >50 years old. Almost none of the BNA authors are experts on
taxonomy, most being ecologists and ethologists. As he wrote,
someone should attempt another analysis of these populations to see
if they are really worthy of being called subspecies. I think we
definitely have 3 subspecies groups in WA - the interior breeders,
the coastal breeders, and the montane/arctic breeders - and it may be
that those are the only ones that actually deserve formal recognition
as subspecies. We don't have many specimens of alpina, but it sure
looks a lot like arcticola. I can't really separate our eastern WA
breeders into two subspecies following the ranges given by AOU and
Jewett et al., which is why in my own mind I haven't given much
credence to lamprochroma as an entity. Reading what Beason has to
say about these populations confirms my skepticism.

Hope that's sufficient further info!

Dennis
--
Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
1500 N. Warner, #1088
Tacoma, WA 98416-1088
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html