SHORE-LARK. 287 



Larks only, as soon as the Lapland Buntings began to arrive they seemed 

 to be on the best of terms together, and the later flocks usually consisted 

 of both species. Flocks of Pipits were migrating about the same time, and 

 it was very striking to contrast the wildness of these birds with the tame- 

 ness of the Shore-Larks. The Shore-Lark often sings on the ground, and 

 when apparently too busy feeding to mount in the air for the purpose, will 

 occasionally utter snatches of song. At their breeding-places they sing 

 continuously, mounting up into the air like a Sky-Lark, and singing their 

 charming song as they sail about with wings and tail expanded. The song 

 is very melodious, though short ; and amongst its few variations a long- 

 drawn-out note often occurs, which resembles much the song of the Corn- 

 Bunting. It often remains some time in the air, and sings its little song 

 several times over before it descends. It will also sing from the roof of the 

 wooden houses. Its call-note is loud and clear, but scarcely capable of 

 being expressed by a word. 



In Lapland the Shore-Lark lays its eggs from the middle of May to the 

 middle of June, but in Siberia not before the latter date. The nest is 

 always built on the ground, generally in some slight hollow. I found one 

 in Finmurk in the middle of a mountain-path, in the hollow formed by the 

 foot of a horse in the soft mud, which the sun had afterwards hardened. 

 Others were amongst stones on the bare ground, and one under the shelter 

 of some rushes in the grass. The nest is loosely made of dry grass and 

 stalks, and the inside, which is rather deep, is lined with willow-down or 

 reindeer-hair. Four is the usual number of eggs; hut very often only 

 three are laid, and sometimes as many as five. They may be said to be 

 characteristic LarVs eggs, and only differ from those of the Sky-Lark by 

 their more olive shade of colour. The ground-colour is a pale greenish or 

 pale brownish white, often so covered by the profusion of markings as to 

 be scarcely visible. The overlying spots are small and irregular in shape, 

 of an almost neutral brown colour, and nearly conceal the paler and greyer 

 underlying spots. Sometimes the markings form a confluent zone round 

 the large end of the egg : they are never very bold, and are often so 

 evenly diffused over the surface as to make it an almost uniform brown ; 

 but at other times they are more thinly distributed, and allow the bluish- 

 green ground-colour to be more conspicuous. In some eggs a few black 

 spots and hair-like streaks appear near the large end, sometimes in a scat- 

 tered zone, and, in rare instances, sparingly distributed over the whole 

 surface. They vary in length from '95 to "9 inch, and in breadth from -7 

 to -63 inch. The Shore-Lark frequently rears a second brood in Lapland; 

 but in Siberia the summer is too short for it to do so. 



When I was in Heligoland small flocks of Shore-Larks arrived on the 

 island on the 11th, 15th, and 17th of October, and I had no difliculty in 

 securing eight specimens. It is said that the Shore-Lark was formerly a 



