BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 233 



bridge, but are supposed to have all soon died."' I can add nothing to this statement, for I 



have no recollection of any such introduction of foreign birds, nor is it mentioned anywhere 

 in my manuscript notes.] 



125. Otocoris alpestris (Linn.). 

 Horned Lark. Shore Lark. 



A not uncommon transient visitor in early spring and late autumn : occasionally seen in 

 winter, also. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



October 28, 1869, flock of fifty seen, Fresh Pond, W. Brewster. 



November i — April 10. 

 April 19, 1878, one male^ taken, Cambridge, H. M. Spelman. 



The Cambridge Region seems to offer few attractions to the restless, wide- 

 roving Horned Lark. It is true that we note this species very regularly and not 

 infrequently in spring and autumn — as well as occasionally in winter — flying 

 in loose, scattered flocks over ponds, marshes and broad stretches of open, upland 

 country ; but most of the birds which we see are evidently either migrating or 

 on their way to distant feeding grounds. I have known them to frequent the 

 shores of Fresh Pond, when its waters were sufficiently low to expose extensive 

 mud flats in the shallower coves, and I have repeatedly met with them running 

 over ploughed land in Belmont or Watertown, while on one occasion (Decem- 

 ber 17, 1868) I found three birds feeding on a gravelly ridge where the Cambridge 

 Hospital now stands. Shore Larks may still be seen within the limits of our 

 city in Cambridgeport where, as I am told by Dr. A. H. Tuttle, they occasion- 

 ally visit the filled land that has replaced the salt marshes near Harvard Bridge. 

 There is, however, so far as I am aware, no locality in our immediate neighbor- 

 hood where the Shore Larks are, or ever have been, in the habit of regularly and 

 frequently alighting. They occur oftenest in late March or early April and dur- 

 ing November. My note-books record a few instances of their appearance, in 

 small numbers, in December and February, as well as one reference to five birds 

 which were observed on January 27, 1871. 



' J. A. Allen, Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, V, 18S0. 120. 

 2 No. 117, collection of H. M. Spelman. 



