168 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
I have arranged the genera (represented in New England) in 
what seemed the best sequence. 
The position of the larks (Alaudide, §16) is apparently 
doubtful. Though the typical Sky Lark of Europe (Alauda 
arvensis) has been introduced into this country, yet the true 
American larks belong to the subfamily, 
Calandritine (fig. 11). They are characterized as follows: 
Bill (in Eremophila) twice as long as high, pointed, and with 
the upper outline convex ; nostrils concealed ; primaries nine ; 
tarsi ‘‘scutellate and blunt behind as in front, with a deep 
groove along the inner side, and a slight one, or none, on the 
outer face ;” 4? hind-claw very long. The common Shore Lark 
is the type. 
I. CURVIROSTRA 
(A) ruBRA. Red Crossbill. Common Crossbill. 
(To be found in Massachusetts as an extremely irregular 
visitor from the North.) 
(a). Mandibles crossed (as in B). About six inches long. 
6, chiefly of an almost brick-red, with wings and tail dusky 
or nearly black. 9, often with a strong yellowish suffusion. 
Wings and tail, dark. Above, of a shade varying from brown- 
ish to olive, with dusky streaks. Rump, almost yellow. Be- 
neath, paler, more or less streaked. 
(b). The nest is built in the early part of spring, or even, it 
is said, in winter. Mr. Paine found one in a leafless elm, in 
East Randolph, Vermont, early in the month of March. The 
parents were so tame that it was necessary to remove them for- 
cibly from their eggs, which ‘were four in number, and meas- 
ured ‘85 X ‘53 of an inch. They have a greenish-white ground 
and are beautifully blotched, marbled, and dotted with various 
shades of lilac and purplish-brown.” 
(c). The Crossbill, on account of his many peculiarities, is 
an interesting subject for study. His most marked oddity is 
42 Tn the Oscines, ‘the tarsus is normally covered on either side with two entire 
horny plates, that meet behind in a sharp ridge.” (Coues.) 
