SHORE LARK. g$ 



thickened with leaves, it is no easy matter to discover them. 

 In fall, the} 7 are so extremely fat, as almost to dissolve be- 

 tween the ringers as you open them; owing to the great abun- 

 dance of their favourite insects at that time. 



SHOKE LAEK. (Alauda alpestris.) 



PLATE V.— Fig. 4. 



Alauda alpestris, Linn. Syst. 289. — Lath. Synop. ii. 385. — Peales Museum, No. 

 5190. — Alauda campestris, gutture flavo, Bartram, p. 290. — L'Alouette de 

 Virginia, Buff. v. 55. — Catesb. i. 32. 



ALAUDA ALPESTRIS.— Linnaeus. 



Alauda alpestris alouette a Hause col noir, Temm. i. 279. — Bonap. Synop. 102. — 

 VieiU. Gal. des Ois. pi. 155, p. 256. — Alauda cornuta, Swain. Synop., Birds 

 of Mexico, Phil. Mag. & Ann. 1827, p. 434.— North. Zool. ii. p. 245. 



This is the most beautiful of its genus, at least in this part of 

 the world. It is one of our winter birds of passage, arriving 

 from the north in the fall ; usually staying with us the whole 

 winter, frequenting sandy plains and open downs, and is 

 numerous in the Southern States, as far as Georgia, during 

 that season. They fly high, in loose scattered flocks ; and at 

 these times have a single cry, almost exactly like the sky lark 

 of Britain. They are very numerous in many tracts of New 

 Jersey ; and are frequently brought to Philadelphia market. 

 They are then generally very fat, and are considered excellent 

 eating. Their food seems principally to consist of small 

 round compressed black seeds, buckwheat, oats, &c, with a large 

 proportion of gravel. On the flat commons, within the boun- 

 daries of the city of Philadelphia, flocks of them are regularly 

 seen during the whole winter. In the stomach of these I 

 have found, in numerous instances, quantities of the eggs or 

 larvge of certain insects mixed with a kind of slimy earth. 

 About the middle of March they generally disappear, on their 

 route to the north.* Forster informs us, that they visit the 



* In winter, says Pennant, they retire to the southern provinces in 

 great nights ; but it is only by severe weather that they reach Virginia 



