THE MONGOL LARK. 25 



power of imitating the notes of other birds, intro- 

 ducing them into his own melody. Like our lark, 

 he sings as he soars up to the sky, or when perched 

 on a stone or stump of a tree. The Chinese call 

 him bai-ling, and delight in his song, often keeping 

 him as a cage-bird. 



Like the sand-grouse, the Mongol lark visits the 

 north, and breeds in Trans-Baikalia, although it pre- 

 fers remaining in Mongolia, where it makes its nest 

 on the ground like the European species, depositing 

 three or four eggs in a little hole. In the desert 

 of Mongolia, where the cold weather lasts all the 

 spring, these larks form their nests late in the year, 

 and we found their fresh-laid eggs in the beginning, 

 and even the end, of June. Wintering in those parts 

 of the Gobi where little, if any, snow falls, they with- 

 stand the severest cold (as much as -34° Fahr.),^ find- 

 ing shelter in the tufts of dirisitn, the small seeds of 

 which are at this season their chief food. This, and 

 similar observations we have made, lead to the opi- 

 nion that many of the feathered tribe are driven 

 southwards in winter by want of food, and not by 

 cold. 



The Mongol lark is found as far south as the 

 northern bend of the Yellow River, and then avoid- 

 ing Ordos, Ala-shan, and the mountains of Kan-su, 

 it re-appears in the steppe near Lake Koko-nor. 

 Two other kinds of larks also winter in the Gobi in 

 very large numbers (Otocoris albjgtcla, Alatida pis- 

 poldta), and the Lapland ortolan {Plectrophanes Lap- 



' Л lower temperature even than this was recorded at Urga. 



