SHORE LARK. 469 



when each can pursue a bird. The parents all this time 

 are following the enemy overhead, lamenting the danger to 

 which their young are exposed. In several instances, the 

 old bird followed us almost to our boat, alighting occasion- 

 ally on a projecting crag before us, and entreating us, as it 

 were, to restore its offspring. By the first of August many 

 of the young are fully fledged, and the different broods are 

 seen associating together to the number of forty, fifty, or 

 more. They now gradually remove to the islands of the 

 coast, where they remain until their departure, which takes 

 place in the beginning of September. They start at the 

 dawn of day, proceed on their way south at a small eleva- 

 tion above the water, and fly in so straggling a manner, 

 that they can scarcely be said to move in flocks. 



" This species returns to Labrador and the adjoining 

 islands in the beginning of June. The males are then so 

 pugnacious and jealous of their females, that the sight of 

 one of their own sex instantly excites them to give battle ; 

 and it is curious to observe, that no sooner does one of these 

 encounters take place, than several other males join in the 

 fray. They close, flutter, bite, and tumble over, as the 

 European Sparrow is observed to do on similar occasions. 

 Several times, while in Labrador, I took advantage of their 

 pugnacious disposition, and procured two or three indi- 

 viduals at a shot, which it is difficult to do at any other 

 time. Several pairs breed in the same place, but not near 

 each other. The male bird sings sweetly while on wing, 

 although its song is comparatively short. It springs from 

 the moss or naked rock obliquely for about forty yards, 

 begins and ends its madrigal, then performs a few irregular 

 evolutions, and returns to the ground. There also it sings, 

 but less frequently, and with less fulness. Its call-note 

 is quite mellow, and altered at times in a ventriloqual 

 manner, so different, as to seem like that of another 



