SHORE-LARK. 



OTOCOBYS ALPESTRIS (Linn.). 



Alauda alpestris, Linn. S. N. i. p. 289 (1760) ; Naum. iv. 



p. 149 ; Macg. ii. p. 159 ; Hewitson, i. p. 178*. 

 Otocorys alpestris, Yarr. ed. 4, i. p. 604; Dresser, iv. p. 387. 



Berg-Lerche, Alpen-Lerche, German. 



The Shore-Lark is something more than an occasional 

 straggler to the British Isles ; but it cannot be claimed 

 as a regular winter visitor, though rarely a season passes 

 without several specimens being obtained on our coasts, 

 and in some years great numbers have been netted and 

 shot. It is a strictly circumpolar bird, breeding in 

 the Arctic Circle all round the northern coasts of 

 Europe, Asia, and America; but wandering along the 

 shores or on the sandy plains of Western and Central 

 Europe in winter, in larger or smaller flocks, never re- 

 maining long in one district. 



This is one of the few birds which appears to be 

 increasing in numbers, certainly in the numbers which 

 visit our coasts, these visits being confined to the 

 eastern and southern shores of Britain. The breeding- 



