PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 303 



SHORELARK [Eremophila alpestris, Linnaeus [Otocorys alpestris (L.)]. 

 French, alouette de la Siberie ; German, Alpenlerche, Ohrenlerche ; Italian, 

 lodola gola gialla]. 



1. Description. Distinguished by the narrow black feathers, directed 

 backwards along each side of the crown and having the appearance of two horns. 

 (PI. 24.) In the breeding season the forehead, crown, throat, and superciliary 

 stripe are sulphur yellow. The lores, part of the cheek and ear-coverts, a band 

 across the forehead, and the upper breast black. Back of neck vinous: inter- 

 scapulars greyish brown, with darker shaft stripes, the wing and tail quills are 

 darker, the primaries and two outer tail feathers being margined on the outer 

 web with white. The inner secondaries rich sepia, with paler margins : outer 

 dusky, with narrow edges and tips of white, and notched ends. The underparts 

 mostly white ; but the flanks are vinous and somewhat striated. Length 6 '80 

 in. [172 mm.]. The female is smaller and duller, and has the horns much shorter, 

 and the lores and cheek patch of black smaller : the black gorget of the prepectus 

 also smaller. In autumn plumage the black feathers of the crown and cheeks have 

 brownish yellow edges. The young, after the first autumn moult, may be dis- 

 tinguished from the adults by lacking both the horns and the bright black and yellow 

 on the head and breast. Fledglings differ from the adult in having the yellow areas 

 of the head paler ; white lores, and only a trace of the black cheek stripe ; crown, 

 back, scapulars, black tipped with golden buff spots ; primaries dusky, with narrow 

 outer edges and broad tips of buff ; secondaries grey, with broad buff margins, the 

 innermost black enclosing a rust-coloured area, and with broad edges of buff. 

 Forepart of breast and flanks with dusky spots, giving a clouded appearance. 

 Abdomen white, tinged buff. Middle tail feathers dusky, with broad rufous brown 

 edges; outermost dusky, with terminal half of outer web white; penultimate 

 feather black, with a narrow external margin of white turning inwards to form 

 a white tip. [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. Some form of this species is to be found in the Arctic 

 regions of both hemispheres, and also among the mountain ranges and deserts 

 of the temperate zone. In Europe the race which visits us (E. alpestris ftava) 

 breeds in Northern Scandinavia, North Russia, Novaya Zemlya, Kolguev, Wai- 

 gatz, Franz Josef Land, etc., while other races are found in the Caucasus and 

 the Balkans, as well as in the Sahara, North Palestine, etc. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A winter visitor to the British Isles, but chiefly known to 



