288 BRITISH BIRDS. 
very rare bird in Europe, and that it is only within the last half-century 
. that it has appeared in Lapland. Our knowledge of the ornithology of 
Arctic Europe is so recent, and even now so imperfect, that these state- 
ments must be received with caution; but there can be no doubt that it 
has become much commoner of late years on migration on Heligoland, so 
much so that an example now costs only as many pence as it formerly did 
shillings. The Shore-Lark appears to belong to the class of gipsy migrants 
who have no settled home in winter, and we should consequently expect 
that as its breeding-range extended westwards its winter range would be 
similarly affected. Of its habits in winter scarcely any thing is known. It 
seems to be nowhere common. It collects into flocks after the moult, and 
appears to lead a roving life, like the Snow-Bunting, feeding principally 
on small seeds. In summer it varies its diet ; for Collett found the remains 
of small beetles in the stomachs of both old and young; and Ridgway 
describes it as catching insects on the wing. It has also been known to 
eat the buds of small plants and minute crustaceans on the sea-shore. 
The adult male Shore-Lark, in breeding-plumage, has the forehead and 
a stripe over each eye, the chin, and upper throat, extending on to the sides 
of the neck below the ear-coverts, dull yellow; the fore part of the crown, 
extending in an elongated tuft over each eye-stripe, the lores, extending 
below the eye and across the fore part of the ear-coverts, and a band across 
the lower throat and upper breast are black. The two patches of dull 
yellow are partly connected together by the hind portion of the ear-coverts 
(which are dull yellow with brown tips), and isolate the black moustachial 
patch both from the black crown and the black throat. The general colour 
of the upper parts is greyish brown, shading into pinkish brown on the 
nape, lesser wing-coverts, and upper tail-coverts; the feathers on the back 
have obscure dark centres. The two centre tail-feathers are coloured like 
the back; the rest are nearly black, the two outermost on each side mar- 
gined on the outer web with white. The rest of the underparts are nearly 
white, shading into pinkish brown on the sides of the neck and flanks. 
Bill, legs, feet, and claws black; irides dark brown. The female differs from 
the male in having the black on the crown of less extent, and the whole of 
the feathers of the upper parts with dark centres, those of the back being 
more conspicuous than those on the back of the male. After the autumn 
moult the feathers on the head and nape have yellow margins, which 
obscure the black on the crown as well as the pinkish brown on the nape 
of the male. Males of the year are indistinguishable in colour from adult 
females in autumn plumage; but females of the year, both in winter and 
summer plumage, may be distinguished by the absence of the yellow on 
the forehead and the black bases to the feathers of the crown. Birds in 
first plumage bear little or no resemblance to their parents, being uniformly 
spotted with dull yellow. 
