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ALAUDIN^. 



LARKS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



The family of Alaudinse is composed of species of which the 

 average size is that of our Sky Lark or Corn Bunting. The 

 genera which enter into its comjjosition are Melanocorypha, 

 Macronyx, Myrafra, Certhilauda, ALauda, Anthus, and a few 

 others. In Britain there are representatives of the last two 

 genera, which some ornithologists however are pleased to di- 

 vide into five or six. The transition from the Turdinte to the 

 Alaudinae is direct, the genus Seiurus connecting Turdus with 

 Anthus, which again is so intimately allied to Budytes, and 

 that to Motacilla, that a separation of the Alaudinoe and Mota- 

 cillinae on the one hand is as arbitrary as that of the former 

 from the Turdinse on the other. In some of the Alaudinse, 

 the bill is scarcely different from that of many Turdinag, while 

 in others it is almost precisely similar to that of the genus 

 Budytes ; but the members of this family may always be 

 readily distinguished by the great muscularity of their gizzard, 

 their elongated and but slightly curved claws, their moderate 

 emarginate tail, and the form of their wings, of which the 

 inner secondaries are much elongated. 



The bill is rather short, or of moderate length, stout in some 

 of the genera, slender in others, somewhat conical, compressed 

 towards the end ; the upper mandible has its dorsal outline 

 sloping and slightly convex, its tip narrow and a little deflected, 

 the edges sharp and overlapping, the notches generally obsolete, 

 never large ; the lower mandible has the angle of moderate 

 length and narrow ; the dorsal outline ascending and nearly 

 straight, the edges sharp and slightly inflected, the tip acute ; 

 the gape-line straight. Both mandibles are moderately con- 

 cave, with a medial prominent line, the upper generally with 



