48 
SHORE LARK. 
“Early in November,” as my friend Dr. T. M. Brewer informs me, 
“ the Shore Lark makes its appearance in Massachusetts, and continues 
there in large flocks of immature birds through the whole of the winter, 
and until March. They fly in small flocks, usually of less than twenty, 
frequenting for the greater part the salt marshes along the coast. They 
suffer greatly from the depredations made upon them by Hawks of various 
kinds, especially the Rough-legged Falcon, the Red-shouldered Hawk, and 
the Marsh Hawk.” “ On June 10,” says Mr. Nuttall, “ on the plains by 
the banks of the sweet water of the Platte, we started the Shore Lark 
from her nest in a small depression on the ground. It was made of bent 
grass lined with coarse bison hair. The eggs were olive-white, minutely 
spotted all over with a darker tinge.” 
Shore Lark, Alauda cornuta , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 85. 
Alauda alpestris, Bonap. Syn., p. 102. 
Horned or Shore Lark, Alauda cornuta , Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vbl. ii. 
p. 245. 
Shore Lark, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 522. (2nd edition.) 
Shore Lark, Alauda alpestris, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 570 ; vol. v. p. 488. 
Male with two erectile pointed tufts of feathers on the anterior lateral 
parts of the head. In winter the upper parts dusky brown, the feathers 
paler on the edges ; on the forehead a recurved crescentic band of brown- 
ish-black ; another curved downwards, proceeding on each side from the 
base of the upper mandible ; a band of yellowish-white over the eye and 
forehead ; throat pale yellow, with a broad dusky patch on the lower neck, 
the rest of the lower parts brownish-white ; quills dusky, tail-feathers black- 
ish, excepting the two middle, which are reddish-brown, like the upper tail- 
coverts. In summer, the brownish-black bands on the head and neck become 
deep black, the throat and frontal band white, and the upper parts light 
brownish-red. Female dusky brown abo\ # e, dull white beneath ; the wings 
and tail as in the male, but the black bands on the head and neck wanting. 
Young from the nest with the upper parts deep brown, mottled with pale 
reddish-brown, lower parts pale yellowish-grey. 
Male, 74, 14. 
Breeds in Labrador and northwards. Migrates in autumn southward, as 
far as the Texas. Not uncommon in the Western Country at that season. 
