visited this island have not come from America, but from the northern portion of the European continent, 
where the bird breeds in tolerable abundance. Some ornithologists (Dr. Cabanis of Berlin among others) 
go so far as to state that the European and American birds of this form are distinct ; but the difference 
between them is so slight that they must probably he regarded as mere races of one and the same species. 
If we separate them, we must go still further in subdivision than we have hitherto done ; for the 
specimens from the Altai, although they have yellow throats and are otherwise similarly coloured, differ from 
the European and the North-American birds in having rather longer bills. The English, Heligoland, Swedish, 
Norwegian, and Lapland bird is, doubtless, the one to which Linnseus gave the specific name of alpestris, 
and, of course, is that represented with its young on the opposite Plate, from examples obtained by the 
late Mr. M^heelwright at Quickiock. The North-American bird merely differs in being a trifle larger, 
more rufous in colour, and in having a somewhat larger bill ; the Altaian, on the other hand, is the 
smallest of the three, but has a more lengthened bill. These remarks are not made without an abun- 
dance of materials for examination and comparison, nor without my being acquainted with the whole of 
the described species of the genus, specimens of all of which are now before me. Here it may be desirable 
to state over what parts of the globe these birds are found. In the Old World some members of the genus 
are distributed over most parts of Eastern Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, Persia, Western India, 
Afghanistan, Thibet, China, and the Amurland ; while in the New World two or three species, as the case 
may be, are found from the United States, through Mexico and Central America, to the high lands of New 
Granada. I may perhaps be excused for not giving a more detailed list of the species, as much confusion 
exists with regard to their nomenclature, and to define them cori'ectly would require a more careful scrutiny 
than is necessary in a work on the birds of Great Britain. 
“ The Sliore-Lark,” says Mr. Wheelwright, “ is the common fell-Lark, and appeared to be more 
numerous around Quickiock this year (1863) than usual. On the 28th of April 1 shot the first specimen, 
close to the house ; and after that small flocks kept dropping in for about three weeks, when they all left 
and went up to the fells to breed. When in the lowlands, they kept in small flocks on the bare patches of 
cultivated land which the snow had left by the river-side. They were not at all shy, but very restless, sweeping 
just over the surface of the ground, uttering their feeble single call-note, never flying far, and soon 
pitehing again. That they arrived in considerable numbers may he inferred from the fact that in about 
three weeks I obtained more than fifty specimens, all of which, with a single exception, were males. By 
all the Swedish naturalists the Shore-Lark is considered to be very rare in Sweden ; but I think it must 
have been overlooked. I consider the Swedish appellation of ‘ berg larka ’ or Rock-Lark much more ap- 
propriate than our British name of Shore-Lark. The colours of this bird appear to be much brighter and 
rieher in the spring than at any other season. There is then but little difference between the male and 
female externally; but one of the latter sex, whieh I shot on the 2nd of July, had a very pale yellow 
forehead, the horns scarcely perceptible, the top of the head and the forehead only speckled with black, a 
little darkish on the forehead, throat very faint yellow, the black gorget on the breast small and not 
nearly so dark as in the male. In the female, which I shot on the 28th of April, the ovaries were small, 
but very distinct. Her colours were much brighter than in summer ; and she closely resembled the male, save 
that the yellow was not so brilliant, although the black was nearly as deep. I have observed that twenty- 
four hours after death the yellow begins to fade, and that in the spring there is always a faint musky odour 
about these birds. Sommerfeldt describes the nest and eggs thus ; — ‘ They breed as well close to the sea 
as further inland — not always among grass and moss, but in gravel and among the dead leaves which have 
fallen from the birch bushes. The nest is built of grass, and I never saw any feathers in it. Their three 
to five eggs are in general yellow, or yellowish grey, with greyish blue and brown spots, often crowded at 
the large end. You find them breeding early in May, and also in Jnly.’ ” 
The late Mr. AYolley informed Mr. Hewitson that he “found the Shore-Lark very common in East 
Finmark on all the cultivated lands near the sea, and also, hut less numerously, on the hills. It was very 
delightful to hear it singing as it sat on a post, a rail, or a barn-top. It used to come on the roof of one 
house where I was staying soon after midnight, and sing for several hours in the cool sunshine. The nests 
were placed like those of the common Lark, in a depression of the ground, often near a stone ; when removed 
they are found to he of a loose structure, and are generally lined with the down from the willow or other 
plants. The bird breeds on the high lands in the interior of the north of Lapland. In the autumn, flocks of 
it are to be seen in the corn-fields, like common Larks in other countries, on their way south along the course 
of the rivers.” 
The figures are of the natural size. 
