SHORE LARK. 47 



place, than several other males join in the fray. They close, flutter, bite, 

 and tumble over, as the European Sparrow is observed to do on similar 

 occasions. Several times while in Labrador, I took advantage of their 

 pugnacious disposition, and procured two or three individuals at a shot, 

 which it is difficult to do at any other time. Several pairs breed in the 

 same place, but not near each other. The male bird sings sweetly while on 

 wing, although its song is comparatively short. It springs from the moss or 

 naked rock obliquely, for about forty yards, begins and ends its madrigal, 

 then performs a few irregular evolutions, and returns to the ground. There 

 also it sings, but less frequently, and with less fulness. Its call-note is quite 

 mellow, and altered at times in a ventriloquial manner, so different, as to 

 seem like that of another species. As soon as the young are hatched, the 

 whole are comparatively mute, merely using the call-note. Only one brood 

 is reared each season. 



The food of the Shore Lark consists of grass-seeds, the blossoms of dwarf 

 plants, and insects. It is an expert catcher of flies, following insects on 

 wing to a considerable distance, and now and then betaking itself to the sea- 

 shore to search for minute shell-fish or Crustacea. 



The Shore Larks reach the United States at the approach of winter. 

 When the weather is severe in the north, they are seen in Massachusetts 

 as early as October. Many spend the winter there, in the vicinity of the 

 sea-shore and sandy fields; others retire farther south, but seldom proceed 

 beyond Maryland on the Atlantic, or the lower parts of Kentucky, west of 

 the Alleghany mountains. My friend Bachman never saw one near 

 Charleston, and only one have I seen in Louisiana, where the poor thing 

 appeared quite lost, and so fatigued that I caught it. 



At this season they fly in their usual loose manner, over the fields and 

 open grounds, in search of food, which now consists of seeds, and the dor- 

 mant larvae of insects, mixing with the Pipit or Titlark, and now and then 

 with the Cow Bunting and others. They become plump and fat, and afford 

 delicious food, for which reason our eastern markets are supplied with them. 

 Although they at times alight on fences, I never saw one on a tree. The 

 ground, indeed, is their proper place; there they repose, near tufts of dry 

 grass, in small groups, until the return of day, when they run about in a 

 straggling manner. If affrighted, the whole take to wing, perform a few 

 evolutions, and alight on the same ground again. 



I have given figures of this beautiful Lark in different stages. The male 

 birds, which, during the love season, have the black tufts of feathers on their 

 head, as represented in the plate, nearly lose them at the approach of 

 winter, when the brightness of their whole summer plumage is also much 

 diminished. 



