SHORE-LARK. 609 



willow or seeds of Composites. The eggs are four or occa- 

 sionally five in number, measuring from -98 to *81 by from 

 67 to *58 in., and are of a french-white, closely mottled 

 with dull olive-green or light yellowish-brown, the markings 

 being ill defined and often somewhat confluent, while occa- 

 sionally a dark hair-line runs irregularly across some part 

 of the larger end. The Shore-Lark has at least two broods 

 in the year, and there is nothing very peculiar to be noticed 

 in its breeding habits or actions. The call-note is so clear 

 and mellow as to have obtained for the species in Lapland 

 a name signifying " Bell-bird." The song of the cock is 

 lively but not very loud, and is more generally delivered 

 when the bird is standing on some elevation than when on 

 the wing, though at times an observer might fancy he was 

 watching the characteristic flight if not listening to the notes 

 of our own favourite at home. 



This bird is unknown in the Faeroes, Iceland or Spitsber- 

 gen. On the continent of Europe it breeds, as just stated, 

 in Lapland, arriving there at the end of April or beginning 

 of May and departing in autumn ; but outside the Arctic 

 Circle it is in Scandinavia still accounted rare, being seldom 

 seen, and that only in winter, in the southern parts of 

 Norway or Sweden as well as in Denmark. It has been 

 obtained in Heligoland, and in North Germany, especially 

 on the coast, it is observed almost every year. It occasion- 

 ally visits Holland and Belgium, and has been met with 

 several times in France, most often in the north but some- 

 times it pushes its flight even to the shores of the Bay of 

 Biscay and of the Gulf of Lyons as in Guyenne and Pro- 

 vence, in which last some half dozen examples have been 

 taken. It has also occurred about as often in Italy, chiefly 

 in the north, but once so far as Naples. In Central Europe 

 its appearance is very uncertain and dependent apparently 

 on snowy winters, but it has occurred in Switzerland and 

 Tyrol, as well as in Baden, Wurtemberg and Bavaria. Mr. 

 Danford informs the Editor that it is abundant in Trans- 

 sylvania in hard weather, but north of Bohemia and the 

 great Carpathian range it would seem more regular in its 



VOL. i. 4 i 



