Galerita 8 1 



Of the Galerita. 



KopvSos, fj KopvSa\6<;, in English a lerk or a laverock, 

 in German eyn lerch. 



Pliny, in the eleventh book of his Natural History, has 

 shown us that Galerita 1 , taken from a Gaulish word, was 

 called Alauda afterwards, wherefore I think that on Pliny's 

 authority the name of Galerita should be used by those 

 who write in Latin rather than Alauda. 



Aristotle, of the Galerit/e. 



Of Galeritse there are two kinds, one is a crested 

 ground-bird, but the other lives in flocks, not singly 

 as the former. Yet in colour it is similar, though of 

 a smaller size, and not having a crest. Moreover it 

 is fit for food. The Galeritae never sit upon a tree, 

 but always on the ground. 



The first kind given by Aristotle has in different lands 

 a different crest, in one place always evident, elsewhere such 

 that the bird can raise or lower it at will, although the size 

 of either is one and the same. This larger Galerita English- 

 men call the Lerc proper, while Aristotle's second sort is 

 by our countrymen named a Wilde Lerc, and by the Germans 

 a heid lerch ; this for the most part lives in open country, 

 and in places overgrown with heather, and on banks of lakes, 

 for the sake of the worms on which it feeds. This bird is 

 smaller by nearly one half than the aforesaid, with a slender 

 beak, and flesh by far the sweetest. 



There still remains a third kind of Galerita, the Copera 

 of the Germans, thus named I believe from its very long 

 crest, and certainly unknown to Aristotle, for it cannot be 

 his first kind, inasmuch as it is smaller than that bird can 

 be ; likewise it cannot be the smaller sort, because it has 

 a crest, which is not present in the latter kind. Wherefore 

 this Galerita was unknown to Aristotle. And, since the fowlers 

 of Colonia [Cullen] with one accord assure us that the Copera 

 (which is midway in size between Aristotle's crested Galerita 



1 Galerita is usually supposed to have some connexion with the Latin 

 galea = a helmet. 



T. 6 



