ALAUDA. 253 
Subfamily ALAUDIN A, or LARKS. 
The Larks are a small group of birds which may at once be distin- 
guished from all the other subfamilies of the Passeridze by the scutellations 
at the back as well as the front of the tarsus. In what appear to be old 
birds these scutellations are, however, almost obsolete. The hind claw is 
very slightly curved, and frequently much elongated. The wings are long 
and pointed, the second, third, and fourth primaries being nearly equal in 
length. The first primary is generally very minute, but in some genera it 
is more developed. The bill varies greatly in this subfamily, being in 
some genera almost as slender as in the Tree-Creeper, whilst in others it 
rivals in stoutness the bill of the Pine-Grosbeak. In spite of the scutella- 
tions of the back of the tarsus, there can be little doubt that the Larks 
are very closely related to the Pipits, though they further differ from those 
birds by having no spring moult, the breeding-plumage, where it differs 
from that of winter, being assumed by casting the ends of the feathers. 
Young in first plumage do not resemble their parents, but are spotted all 
over. The Larks appear to bear the same relation to the Pipits that the 
Thrushes do to the Warblers. 
There are probably about seventy species of Larks, which are divisible 
into several genera*, one only of which is represented in Europe. The 
Larks belong to the Old World, and are chiefly confined to the Palearctic, 
Ethiopian, and Oriental Regions. One of the Palearctic species is cir- 
cumpolar, and each of the Australian, Neotropical, and Nearctic Regions 
contains a solitary species. 
Genus ALAUDA. 
The genus Alauda was included by Linnzeus, in 1766, in the twelfth 
edition of his ‘Systema Nature,’ vol. 1. p. 287, the Sky-Lark (the Alauda 
alauda of Brisson) having been by common consent admitted to be the 
type. 
* In the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London’ for 1874 (pp. 614-651) my 
friend Mr. Bowdler Sharpe published an elaborate article on the Larks of Southern Africa. 
It is written with all the careful elaboration of the details of the colours of the plumage 
