THE CEESTED LARK. 235 



all exhibited fragments of stone. The occasional flying of this 

 species to man, for protection from birds of prey, is noticed under 

 sparrow-hawk. The skylark is most eloquently descanted on in 

 the "Recreations of Christopher North," vol. iii. p. 21. 



Over the greater portion of Europe the Alauda arvensis is 

 common. The localities most distant from the British islands in 

 which this bird has come under my own observation, were the 

 Morea, and about Smyrna, where it was seen in April and May. 



THE CEESTED LARK. 



Alauda cristata, Linn. 



Is said to have been once obtained in Ireland. 



A description and figure of the bird which appeared in the Dub- 

 lin Penny Journal of February the 27th, 1836 (vol. iv. p. 276.), 

 contains all that is known of it. The writer, who signs "J. W. R.," 

 announces the bird under the name of Alauda cristata, and states 

 that he killed one near Taney, a few weeks before. 



Mr. Yarrell informs us, in the second edition of his British 

 Birds, (vol. i. p. 456), that since the publication of the pre- 

 ceding notice, a crested lark has been killed in Sussex: the only 

 one known to have occurred in Great Britain. Major Walker, in 

 a letter to me, written in June, 1846, from The Lodge, Kyle, 

 co. Wexford, remarked, that he had " met with the crested lark 

 in great numbers in Hungary, almost always in the villages and 

 towns, rooting in the mud. Their German name is koth-lerche or 

 mud-lark. YarrelTs figure is unfortunately from a dead bird, 

 and so loses its resemblance to the living, in which the crest is 

 always borne erect, except when spreading its wings to fly. It is 

 so large that the bird attracts attention, and I for a long time 

 tried to shoot one, but in vain, as, although familiar as sparrows, 

 they were hardly to be met with except in towns, where I would 

 not fire." The same gentleman subsequently remarked, that as 

 soon as the first snow fell in the north of France, in the winter of 



