SOME BIRDS OF THE WINTER. 313 



feathers. The eggs are from five to seven in 

 number, various shades of green and gray in 

 ground colour, spotted and blotched with light 

 and dark brown and violet-gray. The young of 

 the Waxwing are nothing near so beautiful as 

 their parents, in this respect being like Starlings 

 and Shrikes, and are streaked on the under parts. 

 We never see them in this plumage of youth in 

 our country, for they moult their dull dress in 

 autumn, before beginnirfg their nomad life. 



The second species which we have to notice 

 is the Shore Lark. This bird has a very wide 

 range, being found in the Arctic regions of both 

 hemispheres. It is a bird of the open tundras, 

 beyond the Arctic circle, and only breeds above 

 the limit of the growth of trees. Shore Larks 

 also have no place of winter retreat, and spend 

 that season battling with the frost and snow, 

 coming south in severe weather, going north 

 with the return of a milder period. At this 

 season the Shore Lark gets as far south as 

 Central Europe, Turkestan, Southern Siberia, 

 and the north of China, and in the New World 

 into the Southern States. It is remarkable that 

 such an Arctic species as the Shore Lark has 

 several very near allies resident in the south, 

 even in as low a zone as the Sahara in the Old 

 World, and Mexico and Central America in the 

 New. These southern Shore Larks are probably 

 the descendants of a common ancestor, driven 

 southwards by the glacial ice settlers which 



