THE LARKS 1595 



they are partial migrants, merely shifting their quarters according to season." In 

 Germany, Naumann writes, " they leave their northern haunts in the winter, which 

 they spend in smaller Or larger companies in milder climates. Many winter on the 

 Main and Rhine, and in Franconia and Thuringia, arriving there in October and 

 November, and disappearing at the first commencement of spring. Here in 

 Northern Germany these larks are resident or partially migratory, these latter 

 rambling in pairs or small companies from place to place, and arriving in winter 

 where they are not observed in summer, but seldom remain there long. The time 

 of migration is in November and December. Old pairs remain year after year at 

 the same breeding place. Thej r migrate from the one inhabited place to the 

 other in the daytime, generally in the forenoon, and fly at a considerable altitude." 

 The song of the crested lark is sweeter and in some respects more pleasing than that 

 of the skylark. This lark nests upon the ground in any small depression of the 

 soil or behind a clod of earth; the nest being loosely and simply constructed of 

 stems of dry grass and fine roots, sometimes lined with a little horsehair. The 

 eggs are grayish white in ground color, marked with dark or light brown and gray. 

 Fresh eggs may be found from the middle of April until the middle of July. The 

 crested lark is a favorite cage bird in Germany; and it may be seen from time to 

 time exposed in the Paris bird market. In India the crested lark is frequentty 

 caged, and kept in darkness by its cage being wrapped in a cloth. In this state it 

 learns to sing very sweetly, and even to imitate the songs of other birds. The 

 crested lark has the upper parts brown; the feathers of the neck and back have 

 dark centres fringed with buff; the crest is conspicuous, and consists of nine or ten 

 narrow feathers, blackish brown in color, edged with buff; the lower parts are 

 creamy white; the sides of the throat are spotted with blackish brown; and the 

 feathers of the breast and flanks are streaked with dark brown. 



In this genus (Altzmon] the bill is very long and slender, gently 



L , curved on its terminal half, while the nostrils are fully exposed to 



view; the first of the ten primaries of the wing being small, but 



exceeding the primary coverts. The toes and claws are very short, and the latter 



are stout. The plumage is the same in both sexes. 



The desert lark (A. desertorum) inhabits the deserts of Arabia and Northern 

 Africa, extending eastward into Afghanistan and Western India. It is thinly dis- 

 tributed throughout the desolate wastes in which it finds its home, living in pairs, 

 each of which enjoys the run of its own territory. This lark traverses the sandy 

 plains with great celerity. The song of the male is often uttered in the breeding 

 season, but it is short and unpretentious. Breeding in May and June, when it 

 makes a small nest of dried grass on the sand, the desert lark lays eggs, which are 

 grayish white, marked with yellowish brown. The plumage of many birds has 

 become modified in order to serve the purposes of concealment from their enemies; 

 and the desert lark, like other species that haunt sterile wildernesses, has gradually 

 assumed a plumage of an isabelline gray, tinged with ash on the forehead and upper 

 tail coverts. The first primaries are black, with white bases; the tail feathers black 

 margined with fulvous, the two central feathers being sandy brown, broadly edged 

 with very bright fulvous; a black streak passes through the lores with a white band 



