ALAUDA. 255 
or hair. Their eggs are from three or four to six in number, and vary in 
ground-colour from white to pale bluish green, more or less thickly 
mottled and speckled with brown of different shades, and with underlying 
markings of violet-grey. 
The species of the genus Alauda may be subdivided into three groups, 
differing in size and pattern of colour. The true Alaude, or Sky-Larks, have 
the general colour of the upper parts brown of some shade, each feather, 
including the wing-coverts and innermost secondaries, having a dark 
centre ; and the underparts are nearly white, streaked only on the breast, 
and sometimes on the flanks. The Melanocoryphe, or Steppe-Larks, are 
distinguished by their large size and thick bills, and vary in pattern of 
colour, some differing but little in this respect from the Sky-Larks, but 
others having many of the secondaries pure white. Most of them have 
more or less black on the breast, and the adult male of one species is 
almost a uniform black. The Otocoride, or Shore-Larks, are more dis- 
tinct, having always black breasts, and in the adult males a black patch 
across each ear-covert, and another on the crown, ending on each side 
in elongated tufts or horns. With the exceptions already mentioned in 
the Melanocoryphe, the wing-feathers in this genus are brown, with 
pale edges; the two centre tail-feathers are coloured like the back, the 
next four on each side are dark brown, but the colour of the two outside 
feathers is variable. 
