158 BROWN LARK. 



attached to flat, newly-ploughed fields, commons, and such like situa- 

 tions ; has a feeble note characteristic of its tribe ; runs rapidly along 

 the ground ; and when the flock takes to wing they fly high, and gener- 

 ally to a considerable distance before they alight. Many of them con- 

 tinue in the neighborhood of Philadelphia all winter, if the season be 

 moderate. In the Southern States, particularly in the lower parts of 

 North and South Carolina, I found these Larks in great abundance in 

 the middle of February. Loose flocks of many hundreds were driving 

 about from one corn field to another ; and in the low rice grounds they 

 were in great abundance. On opening numbers of these, they appeared 

 to have been feeding on various small seeds with a large quantity of 

 gravel. On the eighth of April I shot several of these birds in the 

 neighborhood of Lexington, Kentucky. In Pennsylvania they generally 

 disappear, on their way to the north, about the beginning of May, or 

 earlier. At Portland, in the District of Maine, I met with a flock of 

 these birds in October. I do not know that they breed within the 

 United States. Of their song, nest, eggs, &c., we have no account. 



The Brown Lark is six inches long, and ten inches and a half in 

 extent ; the upper parts brown olive touched with dusky ; greater coverts 

 and next superior row lighter ; bill black, slender ; nostril prominent ; 

 chin and line over the eye pale rufous ; breast and belly brownish ochre, 

 the former spotted with black ; tertials black, the secondaries brown, 

 edged with lighter ; tail slightly forked, black ; the two exterior feathers 

 marked largely with white ; legs dark purplish brown ; hind heel long, 

 and nearly straight ; eye dark hazel. Male and female nearly alike. 

 Mr. Pennant says that one of these birds was shot near London. 



