28 
British Birds. 
The eggs are four to six in number, and are of a 
varying in colour from stone-grey to greenish white, with spots or streaks ot 
purplish black, and faint blotches of violet or lilac-grey. 
THE LAPLAND This is a handsome bird, remarkable for the length of the claw 
BUNTING. on the hind-toe, whence it is often called the Lapland Long-spur 
(' Calcarius or Long-spurred Bunting. The adult male is easily recognised by 
lapponicus). its black crown, throat, and sides of face, followed by a broad collar 
of bright chestnut which surrounds the hind neck and the sides of the neck ; the 
under-surface of the body is creamy white, the flanks being streaked with black. The 
adult female has the head and neck like the back and lacks the black crown and 
chestnut collar. In both sexes there is a conspicious buff eyebrow, and a broad line 
of white from the eyebrow down the sides of the neck to the sides of the upper breast. 
This white marking is evident even in the winter dress, when the whole of the 
plumage is obscured by sandy buff edges, which fall off in the spring and leave the 
summer plumage in its full beauty. In habits the Lapland Bunting presents few 
features of difference from those of the Snow Bunting, and it also collects in flocks 
like that species. The home of the Lapland Bunting is on the tundra or barren 
grounds of the Arctic portions of both hemispheres, and the nest is placed on the 
ground in tussocks on the marshy tundra; it is made of dry grass and roots and is 
plentifully lined with feathers, 
dark olive-brown or stone-brown, streaked 
and spotted with purplish brown. 
The Larks may be recog- 
THE LARKS. . , r , ' 
„ nised from other Passerine 
r amity 
ALA UDIDSE Birds by having both aspects 
of the tarsus scutellated. 
The Shore-Lark ( Otocorys alpestris). 
A visitor to Great Britain in late autumn 
and winter, and sometimes noticed on its 
return journey in spring. The species is 
the sole British representative of a genus of 
Larks which is distributed over Northern Europe, and Northern and Central Asia, 
but is much more plentiful in the New World, where not only our own Shore Lark is 
found in the Arctic Regions, but many other races of these Horned Larks occur, ex- 
tending even into the mountains of the South American Continent as far as Colombia. 
The Shore-Lark is an Arctic species, breeding in the high north beyond the limit 
of torest-growth both in Europe and America. It is essentially aground bird, and accord- 
ing to Seebohm’s observations, even sings on the ground, as do several of the Larks. 
On the other hand, it will frequently mount into the air to sing. The nest 
is on the ground and is of the usual Lark-like pattern, a loosely-made structure of dry 
grass and stalks, with a lining of hair or willow-down. The eggs are from three to five 
in number, brown, with spots of darker brown, generally collected round the larger end. 
The Shore Lark. 
