ALAUDID^E. 



245 







THE SHORT-TOED LARK. 



Alauda brachvdactvla, Leisler. 



The Short-toed Lark is a rare wanderer to England at the seasons 

 of migration, and the authenticated instances of its occurrence 

 appear to be : — one near Shrewsbury, two near Brighton, one near 

 Southampton, one on the Scilly Islands, and one near Cambridge 

 — all in autumn ; while a bird was killed near Brighton in April 1858 

 by a person who saw it alight and begin dusting itself in the road. 

 On July 27th 1888, Mr. Cooper, the taxidermist, of Radnor Street, 

 E.G., showed me a live bird said to have been taken at Amberley, 

 Sussex, on the iSth of that month. 



Although this species has been recorded from Heligoland, it can 

 only be considered a straggler to Northern or even Central Germany, 

 to Belgium, and to France north of Paris ; but at Blois Sir Edward 

 Newton found it breeding, and it is a regular summer-visitant to 

 the districts further south, although said to emigrate in winter. In 

 the Spanish Peninsula it is abundant and — in the southern portions 

 at least — stationary ; it is so also in Northwestern Africa, but in 

 the north-east, as far south as Abyssinia, it is only found in winter 

 and on passage, when it is very numerous and in large flocks. 

 To Italy, again, it is only a summer-visitor, although abundant in 

 the south, but in Malta it is a resident, and it is found more or 

 less throughout the year in Greece, Turkey, Southern Russia, 

 Asia Minor and Palestine ; while further east we trace it to Persia, 



