EREMOPHILA ALPESTRIS I SHORE LARK. 103 



common bird during the part of the year above men- 

 tioned, and sometimes very abundant, but its appear- 

 ance cannot be relied upon. Occasionally it gathers 

 in flocks of great extent in the fields of winter-rye 

 along the sea-shore, where its wild, wayward flight, 

 and the quick alarum of its shrill voice, bring it prom- 

 inently to notice. 



[The Shore Lark is essentially a terrestrial bird of 

 plain and prairie, seldom alighting anywhere except 

 upon the ground, where 

 it runs with the greatest 

 ease, and where its nest 

 is placed. In most of 

 the United States, east 

 of the Mississippi, it is 

 only a winter visitant, 

 as in New England. It 

 breeds, however, in the 

 northern tier of States 

 as far east as New York, FlG - 26 - - SHORE LARK - (Natural size.) 

 and very abundantly in Labrador and Newfoundland ; 

 being therefore likely to be taken in the same act along 

 the northern border of Maine. The nest will be found 

 on the ground, in a slight depression, lined with a 

 few grasses ; the eggs, four or five in number, meas- 

 uring about 0.90X0.65, grayish-white in ground-color, 

 very variously but always thoroughly marked with 

 brownish and purplish spots. The bird is an early 

 breeder, laying the first set of eggs in April, some- 

 times before the snow is gone, and raising usually 

 more than one brood ; for I have found eggs in July, 

 when plenty of young birds had long been on the 

 wing. C.~\ 



