BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 227 



ORDER, PASSERES (PERCHING BIRDS); 



Family, ALAUDID^ (Larks). 



THE SKYLARK 



(Alauda arvensis). 

 Plate 70. 



Of the one hundred and thirty species which we have 

 selected as worthy of plates and full descriptions, the sixty- 

 eight already described are members of no fewer than 

 fourteen natural Orders, some of them comprising families 

 of widely different characters. Thus almost every second 

 bird hitherto selected has been in some measm-e a fresh 

 type, requiring a very considerable amount of general 

 treatment before its own peculiar characteristics could be 

 discussed. Now, however, we come to a dividing-line ; for 

 the remaining sixty-two species are all included in the 

 fifteenth and last Order on our list. It comprises many 

 families, it is true, but they show a comparatively small 

 degree of divergence, especially after the first two families. 

 So marked is their general similarity that we shall only 

 need to treat a few outstanding examples at length, and 

 may dismiss the majority with much briefer notice than 

 has hitherto been possible, except in a few cases. 



As well as being the most largely represented Order, both 

 in the British Isles and elsewhere, this great group is in 

 many ways the most important to the ordinary observer. 

 The birds that nest in his garden or on his house ; those 

 that come for the food he throws out in winter ; nearly 

 all the birds that he notices on his rambles through lanes 

 and fields and woodlands — in fact, almost all the common 



