CRESTED LARK. 457 



Our personal observation of this bird while on the Conti- 

 nent, leads us to regard it as a much more solitary bird 

 than the Sky Lark, to which in its general aspect it bears 

 a close resemblance. The Crested Lark is said to con- 

 gregate in flocks occasionally ; but when we observed 

 them they were scattered over the country in pairs, very 

 frequently in the vicinity of the main roads. 1 '' 



Pallas describes this species as visiting Siberia and Eus- 

 sia in summer, and M. Nilsson includes it with a good 

 coloured figure in his Fauna of Scandinavia. BufFon 

 speaks of it, as before mentioned, as inhabiting Poland ; 

 and it is included by various authors among the birds of 

 Germany. It is rare in Holland and Belgium, seen in the 

 latter named country about October on its passage south. 

 M. Vieillot says "it is resident all the year in France, 

 and frequently shows itself about the entrance of villages, 

 or on low walls or coverings of low houses. Its song is 

 sweet and agreeable, and is continued till the month of 

 September. The female makes her nest on the ground in 

 cultivated fields, it is constructed very like that of the 

 Sky Lark, and she deposits four or five eggs of a light 

 ash colour, spotted with light and dark brown." They 

 feed on insects of various sorts, worms, and grain, and 

 the writer remembers when travelling some years since 

 from Calais to Paris, seeing one or two of these birds 

 occasionally picking, like our sparrows, at the horse-dung 

 dropped in the road, flying off, on the approach of a car- 

 riage, to the road-side, settling on the foot-path or perch- 

 ing on any low rail till the vehicle had passed, and then 

 returning to renew their search. 



The Crested Lark is found in Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, 

 Greece, and Asia Minor ; it is found also in Spain, North 

 Africa, Sicily, Crete, and in Egypt. 



