452 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



sterile plains of those which are most elevated, as the 

 Pyrenees and others ; more rarely in salt marshes, or 

 in tufts of grass on shelving rocks near the sea. This 

 fabric is made, in the fissures of cliffs, of dry grass, and a 

 little moss, lined with finer blades of the former and a 

 few long hairs. The eggs are 4 or 5, of a sullied white, 

 covered with small brown spots, collected chiefly towards 

 the larger end. The younger birds, or Dusky Lark, 

 breed on the sea-coast of the South of England. 



This species is about 7 inches long. Legs chesnut. Lower man- 

 dible straight and livid, the upper blackish. Eye hazel. Above (in 

 the adult) greyish-brown, with a darker shade in the centre of each 

 feather. Small coverts of the wings bordered and edged with grey- 

 ish-white. Spots of the breast, pale greyish-brown. In the young 

 the spots below are dark and conspicuous, and the 2 bands on the 

 wings are of a greyish-brown ; upon the 1st and 2d primaries there 

 is also a large spot of Avhite. 



