312 THE LARKS. 



shot the female wax-wing with immature eggs in its body, 

 there can be no doubt of its breeding in Scandinavia ; still 

 it is singular, that not a single well-authenticated instance 

 is on record of its nest or eggs having been found in the 

 peninsula. 



The wax-wing is easily tamed. Friends of mine, indeed, 

 have had it long in confinement. It has little besides beauty 

 of plumage, however, as a recommendation for a cage-bird ; 

 for its habits are dirty, and its song, which is nearly alike 

 winter and summer, possesses little variety, and consists of 

 a single, long-drawn, trill, ziziri, ziziri, or zirrrr. 



In Denmark it is only known as a migratory bird, and, as 

 with us, only appears there certain years. During the winters 

 of 1821-2, 1843-4, 1847-8, and 1.849-50, these birds 

 swarmed over the whole of that country. 



The Shore Lark (Berg-Larka, or Mountain-Lark, Sw. ; 

 Alauda alpestris, Linn.). Until within the last few years 

 this bird, whose proper home is the high north, was not 

 included in the Scandinavian fauna ; but recently it has been 

 met with, as well in Eastern Finmark, as on the western 

 coast of Scania, where, indeed, upwards of fifty were shot 

 during the winter or spring of 1849. It has been found in 

 a few instances in Denmark. 



" During the summer time the resorts of this bird called 

 in Eastern Finmark the Sand-Larka, or, Sand-Lark," says 

 M. Malm, and he is the only Swedish naturalist who gives 

 us any information about it, " are the fjall morasses in Eastern 

 Finmark, where it makes its nest, like the song-lark, by the 

 side of a tussock, or the like. Its habits and manner of 

 living much resemble those of that bird ; and when it sings, 

 it, whilst ascending aloft, gives utterance to several varying 



