4-2 Mr. MontaguV Defer -if i ions of 



this bird many years before it was given to the world as a diftin& 

 fpecies by Mr. Lewin ; for, in his folio edition of Britirh Zoology, 

 pi. P i, he has given what he calls a variety of the Tit-lark (Alauda 

 pratenfts) with dnfky legs, fhot on the rocks on the coaft of Carnar- 

 vonfhire. Should this prove to be the fame bird, of which I be- 

 lieve there is no doubt, it does not detract from the merit of Mr. 

 Lewin, who firft gave it as a diftinft fpecies, but only ferves to 

 fhew the flow progrefs of light upon Natural Hiftoiy. That 

 gentleman, however, did net feem acquainted with the particulars 

 of its hiftory. This circumftance has induced me to lay before the 

 Society the fruits of my further difcovery refpecling it. 



The Rock Lark only afFefts the rocky parts of the coaft : where 

 the fandy fiats intervene it is not to be met with, except in winter, 

 when it is occafionally found in the marfhes, but feldom, if ever' 

 out of the influx of the fpring tides ; from which we may conclude 

 its food is principally marine infe&s. Early in the fpring it begins 

 its fong, which much refembles that of the Alauda pratenfis, mount- 

 ing in the air like that bird, and returning again to the ground, or 

 fome neighbouring rock, with motipnlefs wing. It begins breeding 

 early in the fpring: on the 16th of April I found a neft with five 

 eggs : it was placed upon the fhelf of a rock, about fourteen feet from 

 the ground, behind a tuft of coarfe grafs r beneath a fmall buflu 

 The neft is formed of dry grafs, marine plants, and very little mofs 

 externally, and lined with finer grafs, and a few long hairs. The 

 eggs are of a dirty white, fprinkled with numerous fpecks of brown 

 darker and confluent at the larger end, fo as to appear-on that part 

 wholly brown : their weight is about 36 grains. 



The bird weighs about feven drams ; the length fix inches three 

 quarters. The bill is dufky, near feven eighths of an inch loner from 

 the apex to the corner of the mouth ; irides hazel ; the upper part 

 of the head, back of the neck, and tail-coverts, are of a dark 



brown ; 



