the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 
119 
alight on trees, both singly and in flocks, and both on spruce- 
firs, willows, and bare high larches. They perched freely, 
and flew from tree to tree, alighting without the slightest 
hesitation. 
Nothing can be more beautiful than the evolutions of a 
flock of these handsome birds as they drift with a high wind 
like actual “ snow-flakes,” or struggle against it with flicker¬ 
ing butterfly flight, uttering at the same time their musical 
tinkling note. 
-^Alauda arvensis, L. 
We only met with two examples of the common Sky-Lark—- 
the first at Ust Zylma, on the 22nd May, and the other, a 
single bird also, at Yiski, near the head of the delta, on the 
17th June. 
_^Otocorys alpestris (L.). 
The Shore-Lark was amongst the first of the earlier smaller 
migrants to arrive. We saw and shot our first specimens on 
the 10th May. A small party of seven or eight was haunting 
the small spaces left bare by the melting of the snow by a 
rapid sun-thaw, on an island opposite Ust Zylma. A day or 
two later they were seen in larger flocks; and they soon be¬ 
came very plentiful around the town, and continued to be so 
until about the 25th May, when they rapidly dispersed to 
their breeding-haunts, or continued their migration to the 
north. 
We did not again see any until we arrived at Gorodok. 
There we found a nest containing newly hatched young, upon 
the sandy scrub-covered tundra near the town. This was on 
the 18th June. The Shore-Lark appears to be only very 
locally distributed on the tundras which we visited. A sandy 
tract of country to the north of Vassilkova, and the clay slopes 
of the river-bank at Stanavoialachta and Dvoinik, were the 
only localities where we saw them afterwards, and only at the 
latter place in any numbers. Nowhere did we find them so 
plentiful as we were led to expect we should by the immense 
numbers which passed Ust Zylma in spring. We obtained 
young able to fly on the 6th July. 
