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Europe ; and although widely spread over mountain and plain, it changes its situation as cultivation 

 proceeds, and builds its nest amongst corn fields, meadows, vineyards, &c. ; but in this extensive 

 empire the wilds are their chief abode." Strickland says that in the neighbourhood of Smyrna 

 " immense flocks of this bird arrived from the northward at the commencement of the severe 

 weather at Christmas." From Trebizond it was sent by Mr. Keith E. Abbott ; and Messrs. 

 Dixon and Ross observe : — " Shot on the 30th of November 1843, in the vicinity of Lake 

 Tajoora, where they were collected into large flocks in the stubble-fields, apparently migrating. 

 They were very shy." Canon Tristram, in his essay on the ' Ornithology of Palestine,' writes : — 

 " A. arvensis we found only in winter, on the sea-coast in large flocks ; and it does not appear to 

 remain in any part of the country in spring. Probably these flocks are migrants from the far 

 north, as they never penetrate inland. There their place is taken by the closely allied species of 

 A. cantarella, Bp.*, of which there were myriads in vast flocks about Beersheba in winter, 

 where there were none of A. arvensis." As we have already stated, Captain Shelley has 

 obtained both races of the Sky-Lark in Egypt ; and Dr. von Heuglin regards it as " occasional, 

 and probably not a regular winter visitor to North Arabia and Lower Egypt." In Persia De 

 Filippi observed it in cultivated fields. 



Pallas says that the Sky-Lark is abundant through all Eussia and Siberia in temperate 

 lands, and especially on the grassy plains. Steller observed it not only in Kamschatka, but 

 equally in the Kurile Islands and in those which lie between Asia and America. Mr. H. Goebel 

 says that in the province of Uman, in Southern Eussia, it is common in summer, being one of the 

 first birds to arrive in spring. Lehmann, during his journey to Bokhara, says it is found on the 

 Emba steppes and on the east coast of the Caspian Sea, as for instance on the island of Peschnoi, 

 on the 23rd of April. Dybowski and Parrex state that it is common in Dauria; and Eadde 

 found the Sky-Lark nesting on the southern slope of the Munku-Sardik up to an altitude of 

 6000 feet, but did not see it on the borders of tree-growth or on the marshy Alp tundras on 

 the north-east Sajan. On those high mountains and on the Kossogol plateau they were singing 

 on the 12th (24th) .of July. He further records it as found on the east of the Chingan moun- 

 tains, common at the mouth of the Dseja, on the Amoor, in the Bureja mountains, and very 

 common in Mongolia. 



Von Middendorff records them from several localities, amongst others, the Sea of Ochotsk. 

 He says that his birds agree with the European species. In Northern China it also occurs in 

 winter, having been procured by Mr. Swinhoe at Peking. 



Captain C. H. T. Marshall discovered the Sky-Lark in North-western India ; and Mr. Hume 

 writes as follows concerning the bird found in that locality: — "A specimen of a Sky-Lark sent 

 me from near Lahore by Captain C. H. T. Marshall appears to me to be precisely identical with 

 the European species. I sent it to M. Verreaux, who remarks, ' This, as you rightly conjectured, 

 is Alauda arvensis. I have compared it with more than a hundred European specimens, and 

 cannot discover the slightest difference.' " We have also one of Captain Marshall's specimens 

 in our collection, and indorse M. Jules Verreaux's opinion so far, that it consists of the small 

 subspecies, and not the large northern form. We have already expressed our belief that A. 

 trihorhyncha is nothing more than A. arvensis ; and we now add a note published by Mr. Blyth 



* A. intermedia of this work (S. & D.). 



3G 



