THE SKY-LARK '73 



" The Larks may be said to grade to the Finches on the one hand, through 

 Monti/ringilla and PUdrophanes ; and, on the other, into the Pipits through 

 Corydallar 



The chief characteristic of the family is the scutellation at the back of 

 the tarsus ; and it is probably because of this peculiarity (and not because 

 they are allied to the Crows) that Howard Saunders subordinating his own 

 views, as he says, "to those of the majority of the B. O. U. Committee re- 

 specting the positions of the Alaudida and the Corvida " has placed the Larks 

 at the end of the Passeres, all the other groups having the feet scaled only 

 in front. 



The Larks are walking birds, building and in many species roosting on 

 the ground : with the exception of the more arboreal forms, they rarely perch 

 on trees ; and when they do, they select the thicker branches. They do not 

 wash, but dust themselves after the manner of Sparrows or Gallinaceous birds. 

 Their food consists of spiders, centipedes, insects, larvae, and seeds or grain. 



Larks are powerful flyers, their wings being large and pointed ; the wings 

 of the males are also stronger and more elongated than those of the females, 

 doubtless to enable them to maintain their soaring hovering flight when singing : 

 as a natural result of this increase of wing-power the sternum is somewhat 

 more prominent, giving greater fulness to the chest. By these characters the 

 bird-catchers are enabled to tell the sex of Larks directly they grasp them, 

 the male being, in their own words, " a handful." 



Practically the Alaudidce constitute an Old World family, one species only 

 occurring in North America, whilst, as Jerdon observes, " They are very sparingly 

 represented in Malayana and Australia." 



