546 



PERCHING BIRDS 



characteristic of the group are the upward spiral flight, and the song — 

 which attains its highest melodious development in the sky-lark — uttered 

 while soaring skywards. While some are resident, or make only a 

 partial move in winter, others are thoroughly migratory ; and the 

 majority of the species — some of which collect in large flocks during 

 winter — are birds of social habit. 



The shore-lark, as already stated, is a member of the one genus of 

 the family which ranges into the New World ; a genus readily distin- 

 guished by the presence in the cocks of a pair of small horn-like or ear- 

 like tufts of black feathers on the head — whence the name of " horned 



larks " applied to the group generally. 

 Among other characteristics of the British 

 species may be mentioned the pale yellow of 

 the front of the head, of the eyebrow-stripe, 

 and of the throat and sides of the neck ; 

 the presence of one black band across the 

 fore part of the head, terminating in the 

 " horns," of a second in front of the eye and 

 extending backwards to form a patch on each 

 side of the head, and of a third across the 

 upper part of the breast. Pinkish brown, 

 with obscure dark brown streaks, is the pre- 

 vailing colour of the upper-parts, while there 

 are white lines on the tips and margins of 

 the wing-quills, and the under-parts, except 

 the brown flanks with darker streaks of the 

 same colour, are dull white. The absence 

 of " horns," her slightly superior size, and 

 the narrower black bar on the crown of the head sufficiently distinguish 

 the hen from the cock ; while }-oung birds are characterised b)' their 

 buff-mottled dark brown plumage. 



The shore-lark, which breeds on the sub-Arctic moorlands of 

 northern Europe and Asia, as well as in the corresponding latitudes 

 of North America, is only an irregular winter-visitor to Great Britain, 

 where it chiefly frequents the eastern coasts, and is unknown in Ireland. 

 It generally arrives in small parties, which of late years have shown 

 a tendenc}' to be more frequent and more numerous in individuals 

 than formerl}'. Its food consists of seeds, insects, and small marine 

 animals. 



Till recentl\- the Siberian white-winged lark {Mclauocorypha sihirica 

 or Alauda sihirica) was known as a British straggler only by a single 



SIlOIUC-l.AKK. 



