392 ANTHID.E. 



Orcadensis, — and Mr. Dunn, it is common also in summer on 

 the Islands of Orkney and Shetland, remaining on some of 

 the former throughout the year. It is common also during 

 summer in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, taking a very 

 high northern range, and visiting even the Faroe Islands and 

 Iceland. It inhabits the whole of the European continent, 

 being common as far south as Spain and Italy, frequenting 

 the plains from October to the spring, and passing the sum- 

 mer on the hills and mountains. It is found also in Egypt 

 and at Trebizond : Mr. Gould has seen specimens from West- 

 ern India ; and M. Temminck includes it in his Catalogue of 

 the Birds of Japan. 



A remarkable instance of the power of flight and endur- 

 ance possessed by this small and apparently delicate bird is 

 related by the Bishop of Norwich, in his Familiar History of 

 the Nature, Habits, and Instincts of Birds,* in the following 

 words : " But a still more extraordinary instance, both as 

 regards distance from land and situation, is that of a common 

 Titlark, Alauda pratensts, having alighted on board a vessel 

 from Liverpool, in latitude 47° 4' south, longitude 43° 19' 

 west, in September 1825, at a distance of at least thirteen 

 hundred miles from the nearest main land of South America, 

 and about nine hundred from the wild and barren island of 

 Georgia. The poor little traveller Avas taken, and brought 

 back to Liverpool, where it was seen by Dr. Traill, one of 

 our most eminent naturalists."'*' 



The beak of this bird, which is more slender than that of 

 the Tree Pipit, is dark brown, but inclining to light yellow 

 brown at the base of the under mandible : irides hazel ; the 

 feathers of the head, neck, back, wing, and upper tail-coverts, 

 dark brown in the middle, much lighter brown at the margin 

 all round ; both sets of wing-coverts broadly edged with pale 

 wood-brown ; primaries, secondaries, and tcrtials, brownish 

 black, edged with light brown ; the two central tail-feathers 

 * Vol. i. p. 94. 



