BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 233 



bridge, but are supposed to have all soon died.''^ I can add nothing to this statement, for I 

 have no recollection of any such introduction of foreign birds, nor is it mentioned anvwhere 

 in my manuscript notes.] 



125. Otocoris alpestris (Linn.). 

 Horned Lark. Shore Lark. 



A not uncommon transient visitor in early spring and late autumn ; occasionally seen in 

 winter, also. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



October 28, 1869, flock of fifty seen, Fresh Pond, W. Brewster. 



November i — April 10. 

 April 19, 1878, one male^ taken, Cambridge, H. M. Spelman. 



The Cambridge Region seems to offer few attractions to the restless, wide- 

 roving Horned Lark. It is true that we note this species very regularly and not 

 infrequently in spring and autumn — as well as occasionally in winter — flying 

 in loose, scattered flocks over ponds, marshes and broad stretches of open, upland 

 country ; but most of the birds which we see are evidently either migrating or 

 on their way to distant feeding grounds. I have known them to frequent the 

 shores of Fresh Pond, when its waters were sufficiently low to e.xpose extensive 

 mud flats in the shallower coves, and I have repeatedly met with them running 

 over ploughed land in Belmont or Watertown, while on one occasion (Decem- 

 ber 17, 1868) I found three birds feeding on a gravelly ridge where the Cambridge 

 Hospital now stands. Shore Larks may still be seen within the limits of our 

 city in Cambridgeport where, as I am told by Dr. A. H. Tuttle, they occasion- 

 ally visit the filled land that has replaced the salt marshes near Harvard Bridge. 

 There is, however, so far as I am aware, no locality in our immediate neighbor- 

 hood where the Shore Larks are, or ever have been, in the habit of regularly and 

 frequently alighting. They occur oftenest in late March or early April and dur- 

 ing November. My note-books record a few instances of their appearance, in 

 small numbers, in December and February, as well as one reference to five birds 

 which were observed on January 27, 1871. 



'J. A. Allen, Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, V, 1880. 120. 

 ^ No. 117, collection of H. M. Spelman. 



