J?G4 



FAMILY III. 



CDNIROSTRES. 



The Conirostres comprehend genera with a strong bill, more or less 

 conical, and unemarginate ; the stronger and thicker their bill, the more 

 exclusively is grain their food. The first genus to be distinguished is, 



Alauda, Lin. 



The Larks are known by the nail of their thumb, which is straight, 

 strong, and much longer than the others*. They are granivorous birds, 

 and pulverators. They build on the ground, and generally keep there. 



The bill of the greater number is straight, moderately stout and 

 pointed. 



Al. arvensis; Alouette des champs, Enl. 368, 1; Naum. 100, 1. 

 (The Sky Lark). Universally known by its perpendicular mode of 

 soaring, accompanied by its varied and powerful song, and by the 

 abundance with which it is procured for our tables. It is brown 

 above ; whitish underneath ; spotted throughout, with a deeper 

 shade of bro\vn ; the two external quills of the tail white outside. 



Al.cristaia; Le Cochevis, Enl. 503, 1; Naum. 99, 1. (The 

 Crested Lark). Nearly the same size and plumage ; but it has the 

 power of erecting the feathers on its head into a tuft ; not so common 

 as the preceding, and frequents the vicinity of villages and copses. 

 Al. arborea ; Al. nemorosa ; CujeUer ; Enl. 503, 2; Naum. 

 100, 2. (The Wood Lark). Has a small, but not so strongly mark- 

 ed tuft ; it is smaller, and is otherwise distinguished by a whitish 

 streak round the head, and a white line on the little coverts, it prefers 

 the heaths in the interior of the forests"}". We sometimes see in Europe, 

 Al. alpestris, Al.fiava, and Al. sihirica, Gm. ; Alouette a hausse- 

 colnoir, Enl. 652, 2; Naum. 99, 2, 3; AYils. I. v. 4. From Si- 

 beria and North America; forehead, cheeks, and throat, yellow, 

 with black streaks ; a large, black, transverse spot on the top of the 

 breast; a small pointed tuft behind each ear of the male. 

 Some of them have so stout a bill, that, with respect to it, we might 

 approximate them to the Sparrows. Such are 



Al. calandra; La Calandre ; Enl. 363, 2; Naum. 98, 1. The 

 largest of the European species; brown above; white beneath; a 



* This character is more or less marked in Budytes, Alauda, Anthus, of 

 which we have already spoken, and in the Emberiza nivalis, which we have yet to 

 mention. 



t Add, of European species, the Girole {jII. italicn); — the Coqtiillade {Al. undata), 

 Enl. 662; the Short-tced Lark, Al. brachydactyla, Naum. 98, 2. Species foreign to 

 Europe, the Bateleuse, Vaill. Afr. 194; — the Dos rou.r. Id. 197; — the Calotte rousse. 

 Id. 198. 



N. B. The AL mas^va, Catesh. I, 33, is merely the Stnrnns ludovicianus. 



