SHORE LARK. 119 



the exception of Mr Ramsay's notice, the latest examples of this 

 species that have been taken on the shores of Scotland. 



Sir William Jardine describes this species in the second volume 

 of his British Birds, p. 330, from an American specimen, an ex- 

 ample which has been followed by Messrs Macgillivray and Yarrell 

 in their respective works. The late Prince Bonaparte separated 

 that of Europe from the species found in America, but Professor 

 Baird in his work on the birds of that country a comparatively 

 recent publication mentions his inability, without specimens at 

 hand, to state the difference between Eremophila cornuta and E. 

 alpestris, the latter name being now affixed to the European species. 

 If the difference be really sufficient to constitute a species, it is 

 possible that both may be met with on our Scottish shores. All 

 the specimens that have yet occurred north of the Tweed have 

 been taken on the eastern side of Scotland. Mr Baird alludes to 

 the "great diversity of plumage in the western shore larks, varying 

 with the sex, age, and season." Collectors, therefore, who are 

 fortunate enough to meet with British specimens, should carefully 

 note these particulars, so as to ascertain whether in reality the birds 

 present debateable characters. 



According to Audubon, who gives a very interesting account of 

 its habits as observed by himself, the Shore Lark feeds upon 

 "grass seeds, the blossoms of dwarf plants, and insects." It is also 

 " an expert catcher of flies, following insects on wing to a con- 

 siderable distance, and now and then betaking itself to the sea-shore 

 to search for minute shell-fish or Crustacea." There is every likeli- 

 hood, I think, that the flocks of Shore Larks which have visited 

 Britain of late years have come from Norway. Professor Newton 

 of Cambridge has informed me that in June and July, 1855, he 

 found the species common enough everywhere in that country 

 during the breeding season, and that in particular localities, as, 

 for example, Vadso in East Finmark, "one can see them at 

 almost any minute." It is somewhat singular that the bird 

 should have so long escaped notice in the British islands, as it 

 is now found in some numbers in districts where its presence 

 had been previously unsuspected. In the county of Norfolk Mr 

 Stevenson has seen in all about twenty-six Shore Larks a result 

 which shows that particular district to be possessed of careful and 

 discriminating field naturalists. In its summer plumage the species 

 would be easily recognised, but in winter, during which season it 



