OTOCORIS ALPESTRIS.
Shore-Lark.
Alauda alpestris, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 289.
— flaca, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 800.
Phileremos alpestris, Brehm, Vdg. Deutschl, p. 313.
Otocoris alpestris, G. K. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 1841, p. 62.
Otocorys alpestris, Cab. Mus. Heine., Theili. p. 121.
T h is pretty species lias of late occurred so frequently in various parts of England, that there are few
collections of British birds which are not adorned with examples. Some of these have been shot,
while others have fallen victims to the nets of the bird-catchers. The introduction of the bird into the
English avifauna was made by the late Mr. Yarrell, who,‘in his ‘History of British Birds,’ states that,
in 1831, Mr. John Sims informed him of a specimen which had been shot on the beach at Sherrington,
in Norfolk, in the March of the previous year. Since that period so many other instances of its occurrence
have been recorded in ‘ The Ibis,’ the ‘ Zoologist,’ and otherjournals, that it would be tedious to quote
more than a few of the more interesting of the notice|that have appeared therein.
In a communication to ‘ The Ibis,’ dated Brighton, Nov;' 16th, 1861, Mr. George Dawson Rowley
says¡ 1 “ November might be called the ornithologist’s month, at least on the south coast; for in it
all the rare birds have been found which have come under my observation.
“ On Friday (15th) two fine specimens of the Shore-Lark (Alauda alpestm) were taken by a bird-
catcher at Rottingdean, in clap-nets ; the dccoy-birds used were Common Larks W arcensis), for which
h e a t first mistook these rare northern wanderers: the man who caught them said there were five. On
the following morning at the same place he took a third. These arrivals were probably due to the late
severe gales; yet all three birds were fat and healthy, with no appearance of privation. The first two «ere
males, 9 good plumage, aud had the elongated and pointed black feathers over the eye well developed
In the same volume of ‘The Ibis’ Mr. Stevenson, of Norwich, says:—“ In addition to the three
specimens of the Shore-Lark taken at Brighton, in 1861,1 am now
in Norfolk, between the first week in November 1861 and the 10th of January 1862 The first was killed at
Yarmouth, on the 17th of November, the second at Sherringham, on the 9th;, and the third at Yarmouth,
on the 12th ; and no others were apparently noticed on any part of our coastmntd the last pair were a
procured at Sherringham. during the first week of 1862. Having been shot in different loca .ties. I have
been unable to ascertain how many of these birds were seen on each occasion, or whether they were the
only ones seen at the time. Most probably, there were others, which escaped destruction; and as these
birds were performing a southward migration, it is by no means impossible that the five specimens seen y
dm Brighton bird-catcher were the remnant of a flight already thinned on the« passage down our eastern
“ “ Besides these recent specimens, occurring in so singular a manner about the same time, I know of
three other examples killed in this county:—a young male, in March 1830; an adult male, a armo ,
November 1850; and a third male, also adult, at Holkham, in December 18o5. I have before W E M }
“ us fact of all those procured being male birds; aud itis worthy of ..otme.n
that, with one exception, a„ in the above list appeared in * e wmter mon he. < * . ,g g g g j g i
Mr Stevenson records that another specimen (a male, like the others;, wnic j . ■ i l i B killed at Yarmouth, about the 24th of April, 1862; aud a letter received from
him while the present page was passing through the press is an enumeration of at least ten other examples
o ' r m X s I to d ■ M M ™ Esq., to the effect that Mr. Gray, the Secretary of the
Natural History Society of Glasgow, had informed him that three specimens were shot m the Tyne B | |
Rfi t Z recen ly (in December 1869) W. Thompson, Esq.. of Weymouth, sen. for my mspec ion
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