28 



British Birds. 



varying in colour from stone-grey to greenish white, with spots or streaks ot 

 purpHsh black, and faint blotches of violet or lilac-gre}'. 



THE LAPLAND This is a handsome bird, remarkable for the length of the claw 



BUNTING. on the hind-toe, whence it is often called the Lapland Long-spur 



iCidcarius or Long-spurred Bunting. The adult male is easily recognised by 



lappomctis). its black crown, throat, and sides of face, followed by a broad collar 



of bright chestnut which surrounds the hind neck and the sides of the neck ; the 

 under-surface of the body is creamy white, the flanks being streaked with black. The 

 adult female has the head and neck like the back and lacks the black crown and 

 chestnut collar. In both se.xes there is a conspicious buff eyebrow, and a broad line 

 of white from the eyebrow down the sides of the neck to the sides of the upper breast. 

 This white marking is evident even in the winter dress, when the whole of the 

 plumage is obscured b)' sandy buff edges, which fall oft" in the spring and leave the 

 summer plumage in its full beauty. In habits the Lapland Bunting presents few 

 features of difference from those of the Snow Bunting, and it also collects in flocks 

 like that species. The home of the Lapland Bunting is on tlie tundra or barren 

 grounds of the Arctic portions of both hemispheres, and the nest is placed on the 

 ground in tussocks on the marshy tundra; it is made of dr\- grass and roots and is 

 plentifully lined with feathers. The eggs are four to six in number, and are of a 

 dark olive-brown or stone-brown, streaked 

 and spotted with purplish brown. 



The Larks ma}' be recog- 



THE LARKS. 



nised from other Passerine 



The Shoue Lark. 



Faniilv 



ALAUDID E Birds by having both aspects 

 of the tarsus scutellated. 



The Shore-Lark (Otocorys alpestris). 

 A visitor to Great Britain in late autumn 

 and winter, and sometimes noticed on its 

 return journey in spring. The species is 

 the sole British representative of a genus of 



Larks which is distributed over Northern Europe, and Northern and Central Asia, 

 but is much more plentiful in the New World, where not i)nly our own Shore Lark is 

 found in the Arctic Regions, but many other races of these Horned Larks occur, ex- 

 tending even into the mountains of the South American Continent as far as Colombia. 



The Shore-Lark is an Arctic species, breeding in the high north beyond the limit 

 of torest-growth both in Europe and America. It is essentially aground bird, and accord- 

 ing to Seebohm's observations, even sings on the ground, as do several of the Larks. 

 On the other hand, it will frequently mount into the air to sing. The nest 

 is on the ground and is of the usual Lark-like pattern, a loosely-made .structure of dry 

 grass and stalks, with a lining of hairor willow-down. The eggs are from three to five 

 in number, brown, with spots of darker brown, generally collected round the larger end. 



