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SHORE LARK.

Alauda alpestris, Lenn.

L/ Alouette a hausse col noir.

Turis beautiful and singular species of Lark has lately made its appearance in Britain, and some of our
museums, as well as private collections, can boast of possessing species obtained in our own country: it may,
however, be considered as strictly a northern species, inhabiting the higher latitudes of Europe, Asia and
America, in which latter portion of the globe it especially abounds. Wilson informs us that it is one of the
summer birds of passage of that continent, arriving in the North in the fall, and usually staying the whole
of the winter: it frequents sandy plains and open downs, and is numerous in the Southern States as far as
Georgia. During that season they fly high, in loose scattered flocks, and at these times have a single cry,
almost like the Skylark of Britain. It is, however, not improbable that this species is spread over the
whole of the American continents ; at least we have received it from the Straits of Magellan, where it was
found by Captain King. M. Temminck states that it appears as a bird of passage in Germany, and never
ventures into the southern continental provinces. The regions of the polar circle appear to be its native
habitat ; it also incubates and rears its young in the marshy and woody districts of the eastern portions
of the fur countries of North America, according to Dr. Richardson, who quotes Mr. Hutchins as his
authority for stating that its nest is placed on the ground, and that it lays four or five white eggs spotted
with black. On the advance of winter, it retreats to the southwards, and is common in the United States
throughout that season.

It appears to frequent wild and barren districts adjacent to the shore, situations in which it particularly
delights, and more especially sandy elevations covered with scanty tufts of herbage, never perching on trees,
but gaining its subsistence from the seeds of grasses and the shoots and buds of dwarf shrubs.

The male and female of this beautiful species differ in the brilliancy of the plumage. In the male, the
whole of the upper surface is of a vinous ash colour, each feather having a central wash of brown; the
forehead is yellow, whence a slender stripe passes over the eye ; above the yellow of the forehead a broad
patch of black extends across the head, terminating above each eye in a tuft of elongated black feathers, like
the egrets of some of the Strigide, capable of being elevated or depressed at pleasure; from the base of the
bill extends a black mark, which covers the cheeks ; throat and sides of the neck yellow, succeeded by a
black gorget ; sides vinous ash, becoming whitish on the under surface; the two middle tail-feathers brown,
the rest black, the edge of the outermost being white ; bill brown ; tarsi black.

In the female, the black band on the head and the egrets are not very apparent, the yellow is circum-
scribed and dull, and the gorget small, in which respect the young are similar.

We have figured a male and female of the natural size.

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