622 ALAUDID.E. 



Yet few if any birds maintain their stock better. They thrive 

 as the farmer thrives by the spread of agriculture, and, in 

 spite of the harm they undeniably do for a few days or weeks 

 in the year, render him on the whole much service. Breed- 

 ing in his growing crops they are in a great measure secure 

 from all molestation at what is the most critical period in the 

 life of a species,* and there can be little doubt that over the 

 western half of Europe the Skylark must be the most 

 numerous bird as from a commercial point of view it is one 

 of the most valuable. 



The Skylark is universally distributed in the British 

 Islands, but as already said a large portion leave us in 

 winter, and this is chiefly observable in the more northern 

 parts of the kingdom. According to Thompson it has been 

 repeatedly seen migrating from Scotland to the North of 

 Ireland, and in Shetland it is almost entirely absent for 

 many weeks. In the Faeroes it arrives sparingly in spring 

 and a few pairs breed there, but large flocks appear towards 

 autumn. It has not been recorded from Iceland. In Scan- 

 dinavia generally it is an early summer-visitant, and reaches, 

 though rarely, as far as lat. 70° N. ; in most parts of 

 Germany it bears the same character, but a few pass the 

 winter in sheltered spots, and especially in the valley of the 

 Moselle and the Rhine f. It is abundant throughout the 

 temperate parts of Russia and Siberia, where, according to 

 Pallas," it does not flock in autumn but migrates almost 

 singly. Steller observed it not only in Kamchatka but also 

 in the Kurile Isles and in some of those lying between Asia 

 and America. It also occurs in winter in North China, and 

 has long been known (though at first described as distinct 

 under the name of Alauda trihorliyncha) from Bhotan and 

 Nepaul, while lately it has been obtained by Capt. Marshall 



* Of course some nests are destroyed every year by horse-hoes and such like 

 imi^lements, but the little hollows which the birds generally take care to make 

 save most of the early broods, while the later nests are unscathed. 



f Mr. Gatke informed Mr. Cordeaux that during the night of Nov. 6th, 1868, 

 15,000 Larks were caught at Heligoland, of which 3,400 were taken before 

 half-past nine o'clock in the evening (when the moon rose) as they beat against 

 the glasses of the lighthouse. 



