CHAPTER IV 

 THE PERCHING BIRDS continued 



LARKS TO WAXWINGS 

 Families ALAUDID^ to AMPELID^E 



REPRESENTED by upward of a hundred species, arranged under several generic 

 heads, the larks form a family which is almost entirely confined to the Old World 

 in its distribution; some of the more highly-specialized forms being peculiar to desert 

 regions, where they have become specially adapted to their environment both in 

 structure and in their protective coloration. The shape of the bill varies too much 

 in different genera to be of value as a diagnostic characteristic, but the feet are well 

 denned. Thus the metatarsus is scutellated, and blunt behind as in front, that is 

 to say, it is covered with two series of plates behind and before, which meet on the 

 inner surface of the limb. Other characteristics are the very long straight claw of 

 the first toe, the long, pointed wing, and the lengthened inner secondary wing feath- 

 ers. Save for a notch in the upper one, the edges of both mandibles are perfectly 

 smooth. 



The birds of the genus Alauda are distinguished by having the first 

 of the ten primaries very small, while the second, third, and fourth 

 are nearly equal, although the third is somewhat the longest; the secondaries are 

 comparatively long, and the tail is moderate and slightly forked. The bill is rather 

 slender, long, arched, and slightly compressed, with plumelets covering the nos- 

 trils. The skylarks, of which there are but three species, are principally found in 

 the temperate portions of Europe and Siberia, although extending their range south- 

 ward into China and the plains of India. The common skylark (A. arvensis) is one 

 of the most abundant of European birds nesting in the British Isles, which are also 

 visited by myriads of this species from the Continent during the autumn and winter 

 months. So great is their abundance that they have become an extensive article 

 of commerce, and on the Sussex Downs extraordinary numbers are netted to supply 

 the poulterers. Popular sentiment has never failed to recognize the exceeding beauty 

 of the liquid notes of the lark, its cheery carol far surpassing that of all other British 

 birds save the nightingale. Frequenting heaths and pasture lands, and generally 

 most abundant in open country, during the winter the skylark is a gregarious spe- 

 cies, and on a sharp frosty morning many hundreds may be observed congregating 

 in a single field, flying restlessly hither and thither, with low, warbling call notes to 

 their companions. The salt marshes bordering upon many parts of the British 

 coasts are well adapted to the habits of the skylark; the birds generally placing their 



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