SHORE LARK. 455 



SHORE LARK. 



{Alauda alpestris, Lin. Wilson, i. p. 85. pi. 5. fig. 4. [female]. Phil. 

 Museum, No. 5190.) 



Sp. Charact. — Reddish-grey, inclining to brown; beneath, except 

 the sides, whitish; throat and stripe over the eye pale-yellow; 

 a broad patch on the breast, and another under and through each 

 eye, with the lateral tail-feathers black ; the two outer exteriorly 

 white. — Female with the front yellowish, and with black and 

 brown on the top of the .head, the black collar on the throat small- 

 er, and the tail terminated by a narrow whitish band. 



This beautiful species is common to the north of both 

 the old and new continent, but, as in some other instan- 

 ces already remarked, the Shore Lark extends its migra- 

 tions much further over America than over Europe and 

 Asia. Our bird was met with in the Arctic regions by 

 the late adventurous voyagers, and Mr. Bullock saw 

 them in the winter around the city of Mexico, so that 

 in their migrations over this continent they spread them- 

 selves across the whole habitable Northern hemisphere to 

 the very equator ; while in Europe, according to the care- 

 ful observations of Temminck, they are unknown to the 

 south of Germany. Pallas met with these birds round 

 Lake Baikal and on the Wolga, in the 53d degree of lati- 

 tude. Westward they have also been seen in the inte- 

 rior of the United States, along the shores of the Mis- 

 souri. 



As yet the nest of this wandering species is unknown 

 and must probably be sought only in the coldest and 

 most desolate of regions. They arrive in the Northern 

 and Middle States late in the fall or commencement of 

 winter, in New England they are seen early in October, 

 and disappear generally on the approach of the deep storms 

 of snow, though straggling parties are still found nearly 

 throughout the winter. In the other States to the South 



