i6oo THE PERCHING BIRDS 



This Siberian lark (M. sibirica} has only once or twice wandered 

 ,nge - nto Western Europe; its home being in the steppes of Eastern Russia, 



whence it extends eastward as far as the Yenisei. It has once occurred 

 in Great Britain, a female having been captured near Brighton in 1869, while con- 

 sorting with a flock of snow buntings, and it has likewise been obtained in Belgium 

 and Western Germany. Arriving on its breeding grounds in Russia in the spring 

 much later than the skylark, it affects grassy and open districts, and when singing, 

 often soars aloft, but does not ascend so high as the skylark. It pairs about the 

 middle of May, and builds its nest of grass upon the ground. The eggs, four or 

 more in number, are grayish white, closely marked with dull brown. The adult 

 male in summer plumage has the upper parts rich brown, bordered with russet, be- 

 coming lighter on the nape; the crown, lesser wing coverts and upper tail coverts 

 being a brilliant red russet, which gives the bird a marked and distinct character- 

 istic; the primaries are dark brown, the first white on the inner web, and becoming 

 almost entirely so in the middle; the tail feathers are brown edged with white on the 

 inner webs; the throat and sides of the neck are spotted with brown and russet; and 

 the under parts are white. The female is similar, but duller and less pure in tint. 

 The horned larks are distinguished in the adult male plumage by a 



tuft of feathers springing from each side of the crown; the bill is 

 Larks 



rather short, and slightly arched; the nostrils are densely covered by 



plumes; the wings are long; and the claw of the first toe is straight and about as long 

 as the toe. These birds are remarkable for the constancy of the pattern of their 

 plumage; yellow and black being usually associated with vinaceous brown. This 

 genus {Otocorys} is strongly represented in the New World, the northern parts of 

 which possess several species, one of the number at least being virtually identical 

 with the common horned lark of Europe. The latter bird ( O. alpestris) appears to 

 inhabit the whole of the northern parts of Europe and Siberia, and other species are 

 found in the Himalayas and adjoining plateaus, two of the number being peculiar 

 to very high altitudes; Mr. Blanford having met with Elwes' horned lark in Sikkim 

 at nearly eighteen thousand feet elevation. 



The horned lark breeds on the f jelds and tundras of Northern Europe, extending 

 southward into Central Norway. Formerly it was regarded as a rare straggler to 

 the coast of Great Britain, but it is now known that considerable numbers of these 

 birds annually cross the North Sea to winter upon the eastern shores of England. 

 Certain spots are frequented by these birds year after year, where they feed chiefly 

 on the seeds of marine plants. For many years the horned shore larks that visited 

 Britain proved to be males almost exclusively, but females have latterly been taken 

 in considerable numbers, although not in the same proportion as the males. The 

 shore larks, which winter on the British coast, rarely wander inland, although they 

 sometimes migrate across England from the Yorkshire coast to that of Lancashire. 

 They arrive during the last months of the year, and remain until the end of 

 February, or even the middle of March. Mr. Seebohm writes that " the shore lark 

 is as much a bird of the tundra as the snow bunting and the I/apland bunting, but 

 it breeds at a lower latitude than the former species, and is almost as abundant as 

 the latter is more local. It avoids the marshy districts, and confines itself to dry 



