Ar,AUDID.'E. 



249 



THE SHORE-LARK. 

 Otocorys alpestris (Linn£Eus). 



The Shore-Lark was first noticed as a visitor to England in 

 March 1830, when one was obtained on the coast of Norfolk ; since 

 which date it has occurred at irregular and sometimes long intervals 

 on the eastern and southern shores of England, but seldom on the 

 west side. In the winter of 1869-70 a considerable visitation took 

 place, chiefly along the east coast ; and from that time onwards, 

 especially in 1S82-83, its numbers have considerably increased. The 

 majority have been observed in autumn and winter, but examples 

 have been obtained on the spring migration northward as late as 

 April 22nd (Aplin). In Scotland, where it was not noticed until 

 1859, it has occurred as far north as St. Andrews on the east coast, 

 but not on the west ; while from Ireland it is as yet unrecorded. 



The present species — a member of a well-defined and widely- 

 distributed genus — inhabits during the summer the northern, or the 

 elevated regions above the limits of forest-growth, in Scandinavia, 

 Finland, Russia (including Novaya Zemlya), and Siberia beyond the 

 Arctic circle, reaching as far east as Bering Straits. On migration 

 it occurs irregularly throughout the greater part of Europe, and 

 occasionally down to the Black and Mediterranean Seas, although 

 it is not recorded up to the present from the Spanish Peninsula ; 

 eastward it is found in Turkestan, Southern Siberia and Northern 

 China. The district between Asia Minor and the Altai Mountains is 

 inhabited by a recognizable species, O. peniciUata,\x\ which the black 



