visits. I t is found throughout the greater part of European
Russia, hut not very commonly, and it has not been recorded
from the Crimea, though it reaches Bessarabia, and Mr.
Robson, according to Messrs. Ehves and Buckley, has met
with it on the hills near Constantinople. I t seems to inhabit
the whole temperate zone of Siberia from the Ural to
Kamchatka occurring also in the Kurile Islands hut not in
Japan though it has been obtained in North China.
In the New World are found two if not three races of this
bird, which have been described as constituting so many
species, hut the most recent transatlantic authority regards
them in the former light. Trusting then to the determination
of Prof. Baird in his latest work (North American Birds,
ii. pp. 140-144), we may consider these races specifically
identical with our own Sliore-Lark, and there is no need to
enter into any details as to the differences of the typical
Otocorys alpestris, which is found in the arctic and subarctic
portions of America, of the 0. occidentalis of its interior
northern prairies, and of the 0. clirysolcema of the more
southern plains, the table-lands of Mexico and the moun-
tain-chains of New Granada*. Whether indeed this bird
breeds so near the equator as the countries last named does
not yet appear—the fact is sufficiently surprising that it
should do so from Arizona to British Columbia on the west
and to Labrador on the east, though it must be understood
that the wooded and cultivated tracts intervening in each
case are to be excepted. The Shore-Lark has apparently
not so high a northern range in America as in Europe: a
single example only was obtained by Mr. Dali at Fort Yukon
(lat. 66°) while but three were seen by Ross at Felix Harbour
(lat. 70“), and a solitary specimen has been recorded
from Greenland.
Pursuing our bird in North America, Richardson says
that it “ arrives in the fur countries along with the Lapland
Bunting, with which it associates, and, being a shyer bird,
* The southward extension of Otocorys here as well as in the Old World will
perhaps some day be recognized by geologists among the proofs of the former
prevalence of a glacial epoch.
is the sentinel, and alarms the flock on the approach of
danger.” I t appears on the shores of Hudson’s Bay in May,
and proceeds thence still further north to breed. But Audubon
found it, as Dr. Coues has since done, breeding also on the
high and desolate tracts of Labrador near the sea, and has
given a pleasing account of its manners as observed by him.
I t arrives here early in J u n e : the cocks are very pugnacious
and so jealous of their mates that the sight of one of their
own sex excites them to battle, and no sooner does an encounter
between two begin than the fray is joined by others
who close, flutter, bite and tumble over as House-Sparrows
in Europe do on like occasions. The several pairs do not
breed near each other. The nest is imbedded in a patch
of moss and here, though not in Lapland, is said to be
lined with feathers—those of the Grouse especially. The
eggs are laid at the beginning of July, and the hen, while
sitting, so closely resembles the moss in hue that she may
be nearly trodden upon before she will stir. When disturbed,
however, she flutters away, feigning lameness so
cunningly as to deceive almost any one not on his guard,
and is then immediately joined by the male who utters a
soft and plaintive note. The young quit the nest before
they can fly, and running nimbly follow their parents by
whom they are fed for about a week. Only one brood is
here said to be reared in the season. By August many of
the young are fully fledged, and the different broods associate
to the number of fifty or more. They then remove to the
neighbouring islands, and early in September depart for the
south, starting at dawn and flying near the water in so
straggling a way that they can be scarcely said to move
in flocks. Other observers have described the manners of
this bird in the interior of North America almost as
minutely, but to quote their remarks would be merely to
repeat much that has been already given. The nature of
the district induces some slight change of habit—for instance
Nuttall on the plains of the river Platte found the
nest lined with coarse bison-hair, but this change is generally
unimportant.