XIII 

 LARKS, CROWS, AND JAYS / 



SHORE LARK 



March 24, 1858. Returning about 5 p. m. across the 

 Depot Field, I scare up from the ground a flock of 

 about twenty birds, which fly low, making a short cir- 

 cuit to another part of the field. At first they remind me 

 of bay-wings, except that they are in a flock, show no 

 white in tail, are, I ^ee, a little larger, and utter a faint 

 sveet sveet merely, a sort of sibilant chip. Starting them 

 again, I see that they have black tails, very conspicuous 

 when they pass near. They fly in a flock somewhat like 

 snow buntings, occasionally one surging upward a few 

 feet in pursuit of another, and they alight about where 

 they first were. It is almost impossible to discover them 

 on the ground, they squat so flat and so much resemble 

 it, running amid the stubble. But at length I stand 

 within two rods of one and get a good view of its mark- 

 ings with my glass. They are the Alauda alpestris,^ 

 or shore lark, quite a sizable and handsome bird. 



Oct. 4, 1859. Going over the large hillside stubble- 

 field west of Holden Wood, I start up a large flock of 

 shore larks ; hear their sveet sveet and sveet .sveet sveet^ 

 and see their tails dark beneath. They are very wary, 

 and run in the stubble for the most part invisible, while 

 one or two appear to act the sentinel on rock, peeping 

 ^ [Now called Otocoris alpestris.] 



