276 BRITISH BIRDS. 



northerly current breaks on the east coast of England, and is visible to 

 any observer who will take the trouble to visit the Sussex downs in October 

 when the wind is blowing gently from the north. Strangers which visit 

 us from South Europe arrive in spring, and are wanderers who have over- 

 shot the mark in company with the birds which form the other great 

 army of migrants which starts from Africa, and crossing the Mediterranean 

 at Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, and other points, spreads over Europe and 

 Western Asia, the left wing converging on the British Islands. The 

 Short-toed Lark is an autumn visitor to our shores, and clearly belongs to 

 the group of Eastern birds which reach us across the steppes of South 

 Russia and South-western Siberia, where it is common. 



The Short-toed Lark is essentially a bird of the steppes ; and the drier 

 and more sandy they are, the better it is pleased. It revels iu the sand, 

 and a bed of dry sand in which it may bathe in the dust is as essential 

 to its happiness as is his morning tub to the modern English gentleman. 

 It is a very common bird on the sandy plains between Athens and Mara- 

 thon, where it may be seen in company with the Tawny Pipit and Cret- 

 zschmar's Bunting (the Grecian representative of the Ortolan), whilst 

 grasshoppers abound on every side, arid large green lizards flash past the 

 traveller, and tortoises of all sizes creep slowly out of his way. I found it 

 equally common on the steppes of the Dobrudscha, especially on the sandy 

 plateau which rises gently behind Kustendji, where it shared the ground 

 with Wheatears, Calandra Larks, and a few Crested Larks and Sky-Larks. 

 It mounts into the air like the latter species, and sings its short mono- 

 tonous song. Its call-note is similar to that of the Sky-Lark, but weaker 

 and shriller. It is essentially a ground-bird, and runs along the sandy 

 plains with great quickness ; and though the Sky-Lark and the Calandra 

 Lark are constantly seen perched on some thistle or tuft of tall herbage, I 

 have never seen the Short-toed Lark otherwise than on the ground or on 

 the wing. Its flight is very slightly undulating, but is constantly inter- 

 cepted with sudden bounds forward. It will sometimes perch on a stone, 

 and I have seen it on the top of the earthworks thrown up by the Russians 

 in the last Turkish war ; but in spite of its short hind claw it does not 

 perch on trees. Alexander von Homeyer says that in Majorca he has often 

 heard it sing on the ground. Its food is said to be entirely small seeds ; 

 but in summer it probably feeds also on insects. 



The Short-toed Lark arrives at its breeding-grounds in Greece and 

 Asia Minor early in April, and I have taken its eggs in the Parnassus on 

 the llth of May, but in the Dobrudscha it breeds at least a month later. 

 I was surprised to find nearly all the small birds breeding very late in the 

 valley of the Lower Danube ; and Dixon noticed the same of the smaller 

 Algerian birds.. 



