518 RED LARK. 



As large as the Sky-Lark : its beak is blackish : 

 the upper parts of the body are dusky brown : a 

 black stripe passes through the eyes, and a clay- 

 coloured one is situated above it: the irides are 

 dark : the under parts of the body are pale red- 

 dish brown, varied with dusky spots: legs dark 

 brown : hind claw slightly curved. Common in 

 North America, and is said to have been captured 

 in England, but not upon good grounds, as Ame- 

 rican animals have generally proved distinct to any 

 found on the old continent, when they have been 

 properly examined : it has been confounded with 

 some other species, as the two Waxwings and va- 

 rious other birds have been confounded. 



Colonel Montagu describes as a species the fol- 

 lowing, which he says was taken in Middlesex *, 

 and which he considers to be the Red Lark : 

 " This species is rather superior in size to the 

 Sky -lark : the beak is dusky above, whitish beneath, 

 except at the point : irides hazel : the upper part 

 of the head, hind part of the neck and back, 

 rufous brown, each feather a little dusky in the 

 middle : over the eye a pale ferruginous streak : 

 chin and throat the same : the ear-coverts inclin- 

 ing to dusky: from the beak under the eye a 

 narrow dusky line : the sides of the neck and 

 breast ferruginous, with dusky spots : belly and 

 under tail-coverts ferruginous white : greater quill- 

 feathers dusky, slightly edged with yellowish 

 white ; the rest of the quills deeply margined with 

 rufous : some of the larger coverts the same, but 

 * Which we doubt. 



