BIKDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMEEICA. 289 



Family ALAUDID.^. 



THE LARKS. 



Terrestrial nine- or ten- primaried Latiplantar Oscines.'* 



Bill variable in shape, but usually small, conoid, usually moder- 

 ately thick or rather slender, sometimes very deep and compressed, 

 in some genera slender and much elongated ; maxillary tomium with- 

 out subterminal notch. Nostril usually narrow, oblique, in lower 

 anterior portion of nasal forsse, sometimes longitudinal, usually at 

 least partly concealed by antrorse feathering of loral antise. Rictal 

 bristles indistinct or obsolete. Wing rather long, pointed, the long- 

 est primaries much longer than secondaries (except elongated "ter- 

 tials"), the ninth, eighth, or seventh primaries longest, the tenth 

 greatly reduced in size or rudimentary, sometimes minute and con- 

 cealed ; innermost secondaries (tertials) usually elongated, some- 

 times extending to tip of longest primaries. Tail variable in relative 

 length but always much shorter than wing, nearly even, double 

 rounded, or more or less deeply emarginate ; rectrices twelve. Tar- 

 sus rather stout, variable as to relative length, latiplantar, the poste- 

 rior edge broad and rounded, the planta tarsi scutellate on both sides, 

 the scutella or segments usually alternating but sometimes nearly 

 corresponding with those of the acrotarsium; middle toe shorter than 

 tarsus, decidedly longer than lateral toes, which are nearl}' equal, 

 but the inner more or less longer than outer; claws of anterior toes 

 slightly curved, usually short, that of the hallux much longer, some- 

 times much elongated and nearly straight, occasionally much longer 

 than the digit. Head usually more or less crested (bi-crested 

 or "eared" in Otocoris). 



Coloration. — Usually streaked brownish above, whitish, streaked 

 with brown below; sometimes nearly plain brown or "isabelline" (in 

 (leserticole species), occasionally black or dusky; one genus (Otocoris) 

 with conspicuous frontal and cheek patches antl jugidar collar or 

 cresent of black. 



Nidiji cation. — Nest on ground, in open places; eggs speckled. 



Range. — Palaearctic, Ethiopian, and Indian regions; one species in 

 Australia and another (circumpolar one) in North America. 



The most characteristic feature of the Larks among other oscinine 

 families is seen in the scutellation of the tarsus. The anterior half 

 of this is covered by divided scales lapping round on the sides, but 

 instead of the two plates which go one on each side of the posterior 

 half and unite ultimately behind as an acute ridge, there is but one 

 which laps round on the sides, and is divided into scales like the 

 anterior ones, but alternating with them. The posterior edge of the 



a See Part I of this work, page 23. 

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