126 AVES INSESSORES. [ALAUDA. 



primaries with a yellow, others, and all the secondaries, with a white spot 

 at the extremity of the outer web : six or eight of the secondaries with 

 the shafts terminating in a small, oblong, flat, cartilaginous process, of a 

 bright red colour, and having the appearance of wax: vent and under 

 tail-coverts reddish orange : tail black, tipped with yellow : bill and feet 

 black: irides purplish red. In the female, there is less black on the 

 throat, and the wax-like appendages are not so numerous : the yellow 

 on the wings, and extremity of the tail, is also not so bright. In young 

 birds the waxen tags do not appear at all till after the first moult ; from 

 that time they gradually increase in number as the age of the individual 

 advances. (Egg.) Pale blue, with a few specks of ash-gray and black : 

 long. diam. eleven lines ; trans, diam. seven lines. 



A very uncommon visitant in this country; making its appearance 

 at irregular intervals. Occasionally observed in small flocks during the 

 winter season. Feeds on heps, and the berries of the mountain-ash. 



GEN. 27. ALAUDA, Linn. 



81. A. alpestris, Linn. (Shore Lark.) Upper parts 

 reddish brown ; streak above the eye, moustache, and a 

 broad transverse bar on the breast, black. 



A. alpestris, Temm. Man. cTOrn. torn. i. p. 279. Shore Lark, Wils. 

 Amer. Orn. vol. i. p. 85. pi. 5. f. 4. Penn. Arct. Zool. vol. n. 

 p. 84. 



DIMENS. Entire length six inches ten lines. TEMM. 



DESCRIPT. (Male.) Forehead, throat, and sides of the head behind 

 the eyes, pale yellow ; a streak above the eye, continued over the fore- 

 head and bounding the yellow on that part, a moustache from the cor- 

 ners of the bill across the cheeks, and a broad transverse bar on the upper 

 part of the breast, deep black : upper parts of the body, wing-coverts, and 

 sides of the breast, reddish brown : quills dusky, edged internally with 

 white: tail with the two middle feathers brown; the rest black; the 

 outer one edged externally with white : lower part of the breast and 

 flanks pale red : belly and abdomen white : bill and feet black. (Female.) 

 Forehead yellowish ; crown of the head varied with black and brown ; the 

 black parts with fine yellowish streaks : the transverse bar on the breast 

 smaller than in the other sex ; the black feathers in the tail tipped with 

 whitish. (Egg.) White, spotted with black. 



A single specimen of this Lark, the only one that has hitherto occurred 

 in this country, was killed on the beach near Sherringham in Norfolk, in 

 March 1830. The species inhabits the northern parts of Europe, Asia, 

 and America. Said to frequent extensive plains, and to feed on insects 

 and seeds. Nest placed on the ground : eggs four or five in number. 



(5.) A. rubra, Gmel. Syst. vol. n. p. 794. Red Lark, Lewin, Brit. 

 Birds, vol. in. pi. 93. Mont. Orn. Diet, and Supp. App. 



An obscure species, if indeed it be a species, of which very little is 

 known. Montagu says, "Taken in the Winter of 1812, near Woolwich, 

 in a net with other larks." The specimen, however, is not in his collection 

 in the British Museum, nor does one exist in any other with which I am 

 acquainted. 



