WOODLARK. 629 



it is sometimes found as a straggler in other counties. 

 Crossing the border its distribution is still more difficult to 

 trace systematically. Indeed it has but recently been fully 

 recognized as a Scottish bird, though long ago observed, 

 according to Heysham, near Dumfries and, from the evidence 

 adduced by Mr, Gray, in other places ; but Torwood in Stir- 

 lingshire, where its nest has been taken by Mr. Harvie Brown, 

 seems to be the only locality in Scotland in which it is 

 known to breed, though it has been met with in various 

 scattered spots from Ayrshire in the south-Avest to Caithness 

 in the north-east. It has also been once killed in Orkney 

 and is, according to Mr. Gray, believed to have occurred in 

 Shetland. In Ireland it is resident but also a very local 

 species, almost confined in the north to some districts of 

 the counties Antrim, Down and Armagh. Mr. Blake-Knox 

 notices it (Zool. s.s. p. 2018) as a very abundant winter-visitant 

 to and also breeding in the county Dublin, while it is also 

 found in Wicklow, Waterford and Cork. Thompson con- 

 nects its appearance in Ireland with places " where the soil 

 is warm " and adds that " cold clay districts," though culti- 

 vated and sheltered, cannot, so far as known to him, " claim 

 it for a tenant." Whether its sparse distribution in Great 

 Britain can be satisfactorily explained on some similar 

 grounds awaits further investigation. 



Northward in Europe its range does not extend far. It is 

 tolerably common in the extreme south of Norway where, as 

 well as in the south of Sweden, it is a summer-visitor, but 

 it has not been known further north than Gefle in the latter 

 country. In" Denmark it is not common and apparently 

 breeds only in Jutland, though occasionally observed else- 

 where in its migration. It is equally uncommon in North 

 Germany, appearing early in the spring on the more lonely 

 wooded and heathery districts, but Bernhard Meyer says it is 

 not rare near Riga. A few are said to appear every year in 

 Finland and to breed in that country. Herr Meves observed 

 one near the south shore of Lake Ladoga, and in Russia it 

 seems not to go further northward than the Government of 

 Vologda, nor to cross the Ural eastwards. On the coast of 



