A L B A T R O S S. 



61 



in countless myriads, and thorc arc other races, such 

 as the rooks, which attack the roots; and but for 

 these, the labour of the husbandman would be more 

 than doubled ; and the best meadow could not be 

 kept as valuable grass, longer than a few years. 



The larks have sometimes been confounded with 

 the pipits (see ANTHUS), but though both are ground 

 birds, the form of their feet, and the surfaces which 

 they chiefly frequent, are different; the bill of the 

 pipits is also much more slender, and less adapted 

 for seizing worms or bruising the husks of seeds. 

 The bill of the larks is intermediate in its form be- 

 tween those of the birds which feed more exclusively 

 on insects, and those which feed mostly on seeds ; 

 their wings and tails are of that form which suits fully 

 as well for ascent and descent as for straight-forward 

 flight ; and the form of their feet is peculiar, and as 

 such may bo taken as their best distinctive charac- 

 ters. Sec CLASSIFICATION, NATURAL, and AVKS 

 (Birds), for an explanation of the properties on which 

 characters should be founded; and the use of them 

 in the distinguishing of species, and determining their 

 habits. 



The following are the characters of the genus 

 AJfuttlu, which vary more or less in the different 

 species : 



Hill, of moderate length, straight, pointed, sub- 

 conical, the mandibles of equal length and without 

 any notch, the upper mandible with a culmen or 

 ridge advancing more or less on the forehead ; the 

 nostrils basal, of an oval shape, and defended by 

 small feathers and hairs which are reflected forwards. 



Feet, with the tarsi rather long, three toes before 

 and one behind, all free and articulated on the same 

 plane, so as to act equally in walking; the claws 

 strong and very little crooked, long, especially that 

 on the hind toe, which is called the spur, and from 

 which the word larkxpur becomes the name of an 

 appendage of similar shape. 



Wings, of moderate length, rounded, the third quill 

 being the longest, and the first shoot sometimes rudi- 

 mental ; the tail strong and expansible. 



These arc the three. generic characters of birds as 

 connected with the three grand functions of feeding, 

 walking, and flying. There are some other peculi- 

 arities that are sometimes mentioned, such as the 

 feathers on the head produced so as to form a short 

 crest, which is crectible. But the production or non- 

 produclion of feathers, unless they are flying fea- 

 thers, that is, unless they belong to the wings or the 

 tail, cannot lie made generic characters, though they 

 may be nameil as such ; and colour is a doubtful one 

 even in the same species, for there have been black 

 and also white individuals of the common lark. 



The foot, of which the following is a represen- 

 tation, 



Foot of the Skylark. 



is the leading generic character of the larks, and it is 

 a very good indication of their haunt when not on 

 the wing. Its principal functions are walking, and 

 assisting the bird in mounting when it takes the 

 wing ; anil it is a foot adapted for walking upon pe- 



culiar surfaces, namely, those that are uneven or 

 elastic, but not wet as, among the clods of a 

 ploughed field, or on the grassy sod ; but it is not, in 

 general, adapted for perching or clutching in any 

 way ; and hence, though some of the larks do some- 

 times alight on trees, they do not perch there so as 

 to hold their balance and feed, they rather stand, and 

 use the tree as a resting-place, or post of observation. 

 The freedom of all the toes, and their articulation on 

 the same plane, enable them to act equally on all 

 sides ; and the long claws are stiffer, and the points 

 of them can be moved more rapidly by the same 

 muscular exertion, than if the phalanges of the toes 

 had been longer and the claws shorter. The claws are 

 levers turning on centres, the one which is pulled not 

 being more than one-twentieth part of the other ; and 

 thus whatever velocity the muscles give to the proxi- 

 mal end which they pull, the distal end must move 

 twenty times as fast, and thus act against the grass or 

 other surface from which the bird rises with about 

 400 or (20 2 ) times the force. The feet of the larks 

 thus can act something after the manner of bows, by 

 which means the bird is, as it were, shot up into the 

 air. They are further assisted by the elasticity of 

 the grass or other surface of the sod, or its resistance 

 to being bent, which in all elastic bodies, indeed in all 

 bodies whatever, increases with the velocity of the 

 bodv which tends to bend them. 



The foot of the lark is thus a subject of very inter- 

 esting study in the structure and mechanical action 

 of animals ; and we can trace an analogy with some 

 of the mammalia, as in the horse, and several of the 

 ruminating animals, and also in the great kangaroo of 

 New Holland, all of which have natural pastures re- 

 sembling those of the lark, and all leap from a long 

 hoof, single or divided. For some account of the 

 species, see the article LARK. 



ALBATROSS (Diomcdia). A genus of web- 

 footed birds, belonging to Cuvier's subdivision of 

 loii^ipennc.t, or "long-winged birds;" those which 

 are much on the winir, fly discursively over the ocean, 

 and Hud their food chiefly upon its surface. In some 

 of their characters the birds of this genus resemble 

 the GULLS, and in others the petrels ; but they have 

 enough of peculiarity to constitute them a distinct 

 and well-marked genus, as well as a singular and in- 

 teresting one. 



They are by much the largest in size of all the 

 birds which are pelagic, or range over the wide seas, 

 and they are probably also the most discursive. Their 

 proper localities are the polar portions of the great 

 ocean, especially the Antarctic, or southern ones, 

 where the sea bears so much greater porportion to the 

 land than in the same latitude of the northern hemi- 

 sphere ; but the northern part of the Pacific also con- 

 tains great numbers of them, as that ocean widens 

 much sooner and more extensively in the line of their 

 tropical migrations than the Atlantic. Even in the 

 winter, the time when they are pelagic or discursive, 

 they do not reach the centre of the torrid zone except 

 as wanderers ; though in that respect, too, they are 

 more abundant on the Pacific than on the Atlantic. 

 As is the case with all pelagic birds, they congregate 

 in the breeding time ; and as they congregate toward 

 both the south and the north, some of them (even of 

 the same species) breed at opposite times of the year ; 

 iu November and December in the south, and in 

 May and June in the north. Their generic characters 

 are : 



