220 
ALAUDA ALPESTRIS. 
pi-sne .* This same species appears also to be found in 
Poland, Russia, and Siberia, in winter, from whence 
they also retire farther north on the approach of spring; 
except in the northeast parts, and near the high 
mountains.^ 
The length of this bird is seven' inches, the extent 
twelve inches ; the forehead, throat, sides of the neck, 
and line over the eye, are of a delicate straw, or Naples 
yellow, elegantly relieved by a bar of black, that passes 
from the nostril to the eye, below which it falls, round- 
ing, to the depth of three quarters of an inch ; the 
yellow on the forehead and over the eye, is bounded, 
within, for its whole length, with black, which covers 
part of the crown ; the breast is ornamented with a 
broad fan-shaped patch of black : this, as well as all 
the other spots of black, are marked with minute curves 
of yellow points; back of the neck, and towards the 
shoulders, a light drab tinged with lake; lesser wing- 
coverts, bright cinnamon ; greater wing-coverts, the 
same, interiorly dusky, and tipt with whitish ; back 
and wings, drab-coloured, tinged with reddish, each 
feather of the former having a streak of dusky black 
down its centre ; primaries, deep dusky, tipt and 
edged with whitish ; exterior feathers, most so ; secon- 
daries, broadly edged with light drab, and scolloped at 
the tips; tail, forked, black; the two middle feathers, 
which by some have been mistaken for the coverts, are 
reddish drab, centred with brownish black; the two 
outer ones on each side, exteriorly edged with white ; 
breast, of a dusky vinous tinge, and marked with spots 
or streaks of the same ; the belly and vent, w hite ; sides, 
streaked with bay; bill short, (Latham, in mistake, 
says seven inches, j) of a dusky blue colour; tongue, 
truncate and bifid; legs and claws, black; hind heel, 
very long, and almost straight ; iris of the eye, hazel. 
The female has little or no black on the crown ; and 
the yellow on the front is narrow, and of a dirty tinge. 
* Philosophical Transactions , vol. lxii, p. 398. 
, f Arctic Zoology . Synopsis , vol. ii, p. 385. 
