206 THE LARKS 



made to explain its meaning. So far, however, none of these guesses 

 at truth carry conviction. 



In the shape and size of the beak the skylark may be taken as 

 the type of his race ; but it is interesting to remark that few groups 

 of birds exceed the larks in the changes in relative length and stout- 

 ness which this organ presents. In some species, foreign to this 

 country, it is so long, slender, and curved, as to suggest an attempt 

 at emulating the hoopoe ; in others it is so short and stout as to rival 

 that of the grosbeaks even among the. finches. 1 Though this is 

 obviously connected with the bird's method of feeding, and the nature 

 of the food, the precise relation of these factors is yet but little 

 understood. The long-beaked forms are all desert dwellers, but 

 short-beaked species live side by side with them, and this suggests 

 that the food must in the two cases be very different, though both 

 long- and short-beaked types are said to feed on seeds and insects, a 

 mixed diet affected by larks everywhere. A more careful examina- 

 tion may show that the long-beaked forms are mainly insectivorous. 

 The heavy-beaked types, indeed, seem to be, as one would suppose, 

 mainly seed eaters. The British larks have specialised in neither 

 direction, and, consequently, vary their food with the time of the 

 year and the abundance of provender. But of this more anon. 

 Though this comparison of beaks may seem irrelevant, it is not 

 really so, for how else, than by such a survey, can we hope to under- 

 stand the significance of the characters of our native birds ? 



The skylark, as we have already remarked, is a bird of sober 

 hues, and this is true of both sexes, which are, in this respect, practi- 

 cally indistinguishable. And what is true of the skylark is true of 

 all his race, save only the shorelark, to be presently described. But 

 this lack of colour is intimately bound up with the habits of these 

 birds, which, the world over, are dwellers in the open country, some 

 even affecting the barren deserts, becoming in consequence extremely 

 pallid, or " isabelline," apparently under the influence of a dry atmo- 



1 Tristram, Ibis, 1859, pp. 429-433, 



