SHORE-LARK. 
OTOCORYS ALPESTRIS (Linn.). 
Alauda alpestris, Linn. S. N. i. p. 289 (1766) ; Naum. iv. 
p-. 149; Macg. ui. p. 159; Hewitson, i. p. 178*. 
Otocorys alpestris, Yarr. ed. 4, i. p. 604; Dresser, iv. p. 387. 
Berg-Lerche, Alpen-Lerche, German. 
The Shore-Lark is something more than an occasional 
strageler to the British Isles; but it cannot be claimed 
as a regular winter visitor, though rarely a season passes 
without several specimens being obtained on our coasts, 
and in some years great numbers have been netted and 
shot. It is a strictly cireumpolar bird, breeding in 
the Arctic Circle all round the northern coasts of 
_ Europe, Asia, and America; but wandering along the 
shores or on the sandy plains of Western and Central 
Europe in winter, in larger or smaller flocks, never re- 
maining long in one district. 
This is one of the few birds which appears to be 
increasing in numbers, certainly in the numbers which 
visit our coasts, these visits being confined to the 
eastern and southern shores of Britain. ‘The breeding- 
