SHORE-LARK. 605 



all the other Passeres of the Old World. This extreme 

 opinion is chiefly based on the fact that the Alaudidce have 

 the tarsus rounded behind and covered with scales there as 

 well as in front, instead of its back being formed by a single 

 sharp ridge-like plate, or at most by two such plates. 

 Another character on which much stress has been laid is 

 taken from the primary feathers of the wing ; but this must 

 be abandoned, since among the Larks there are some species 

 in which the first primary is comparatively large, others in 

 which it is much less developed and others in which it is so 

 small as to have been often described as wanting*. The struc- 

 ture of the casing of the tarsus seems to furnish a very good 

 diagnostic of the Alaudidce, but whether any other constant 

 characters of importance can be found seems doubtful, and 

 therefore to sever this family so widely from birds with which 

 in other respects it greatly agrees and to ally it to others 

 with which it has little else in common seems inexpedient. 

 Some Larks the Woodlark for example, have a bill almost 

 as fine as a Pipit's, others, as the North-African Rhamplwcorys 

 cloibey, have it as powerful as a Grosbeak's, others again have 

 it elongated and curved, so much so that one of them was 

 described in the last century as a Hoopoe t. Nor is the elon- 

 gated hind claw diagnostic of the Larks, since some have no 

 remarkable development of it, while there are certain Pipits 

 and Buntings with this claw of great length. Most Larks, 

 indeed all but one of the European species, have the nostrils 

 covered by short feathers and not exposed as in the Pipits, 

 and there is also an asserted physiological difference, already 

 mentioned, between these families, namely that Larks moult 

 but once in the year while Pipits moult twice, and again, 

 though this is of less importance, the plumage of the nestling 

 in Larks differs greatly in its mottled style from that of the 

 adult, this not being the case in the Pipits. Furthermore 



* M. Vian has some remarks on this subject (Rev. Zool. 1871-72, p. 84) but 

 he is mistaken in stating that there are some European Larks which have not 

 this feather. 



t Upupa alaudipcs, Desfont. Mem. de 1'Acad. 1787, p. 504; Alauda deser- 

 torum, Stanley. 



