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280 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
Famiry ALAUDIDZ. Tue SxKyLarks. 
First primary very short or wanting; tarsi scutellate anteriorly and posteriorly, 
with the plates nearly of corresponding position and number; hind claw very long 
and nearly straight; bill short, conical, frontal feathers extending along the side of 
the bill; the nostrils usually concealed by a tuft of bristly feathers directed forwards; 
tertials greatly elongated beyond the secondaries. 
EREMOPHILA, Bors. 
Eremophila, Born, Isis (1828), 322. (Type Alauda alpesiris.) Sufficiently distinct 
from Hremophilus, Humboldt (Fishes, 1805). 
First primary wanting; bill scarcely higher than broad; nostrils circular, con- 
cealed by a dense tuft of feathers; the nasal fossz oblique; a pectoral crescent and 
cheek patches of black. 
EREMOPHILA CORNUTA. — Boie. 
The Skylark; Shore-lark. 
Eastern and Northern variety. 
Alauda cornuta, Wilson. Am. Orn., I. (1808) 85. 
Eremophila cornuta, Boie. Isis (1828), 322. 
Alauda alpestris, Wilson. Am. Orn., I. (1808) 85. Nutt. Man., I. (1882) 455. 
Aud. Orn. Biog., II. (1884) 570; V. 448. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Above pinkish-brown, the feathers of the back streaked with dusky; a broad 
band across the crown, extending backwards along the lateral tufts; a crescentic 
patch from the bill below the eye and along the side of the head; a jugular crescent, 
and the tail feathers, black; the innermost of the latter like the back; a frontal band 
extending backwards over the eye, and under parts, with outer edge of wings and 
tail, white; chin and throat yellow. 
Length of Pennsylvania specimens, seven and seventy-five one-hundredths 
inches; wing, four and fifty one-hundredths inches; tail, three and twenty-five one- 
hundredths inches; bill, above, fifty-two one-hundredths of an inch. 
HIS bird is found in New England only as a winter 
visitor. It makes its appearance by the latter part of 
November, in flocks of thirty or forty, which repair to the 
salt-marshes, and low pastures and fields, where they remain 
during their stay with us. Here they feed on the seeds of 
various grasses and weeds, and such insects as they may be 
