LARKS. 421 



they spend in smaller or larger companies in milder climates. Many winter on the 

 Main and Rhine, and in Franconia and Thuringia, arriving there in October and 

 November, and disappearing at the first commencement of spring. Here in 

 Northern Germany these larks are resident or partially migratory, these latter 

 rambling in pairs or small companies from place to place, and arriving in winter 

 where they are not observed in summer, but seldom remain there long. The time 

 of migration is in November and December. Old pairs remain year after year at 

 the same breeding-place. They migrate from the one inhabited place to the other 

 in the daytime, generally in the forenoon, and fly at a considerable altitude." 

 The song of the crested lark is sweeter and in some respects more pleasing than 

 that of the skylark. This lark nests upon the ground in any small depression 

 of the soil or behind a clod of earth ; the nest being loosely and simply constructed 

 of stems of dry grass and fine roots, sometimes lined with a little horsehair. 

 The eggs are greyish white in ground-colour, marked with dark or light brown 

 and grey. Fresh eggs may be found from the middle of April until the middle of 

 July. The crested lark is a favourite cage-bird in Germany ; and it may be seen 

 from time to time exposed in the Paris bird-market. In India the crested lark 

 is frequently caged, and kept in darkness by its cage being wrapped in a cloth. 

 In this state it learns to sing very sweetly, and even to imitate the songs of other 

 birds. The crested lark has the upper-parts brown ; the feathers of the neck and 

 back having dark centres fringed with buff; the crest is conspicuous, and consists 

 of nine or ten narrow feathers, blackish brown in colour, edged with buff; the lower- 

 parts are creamy white ; while the sides of the throat are spotted with blackish 

 brown ; the feathers of the breast and flanks being streaked with dark brown. 



In this genus (Alcemon) the bill is very long and slender, gently 

 The Desert-Lark. . ... .. , ., e n 



curved on its terminal hair, while the nostrils are tully exposed to 



view ; the first of the ten primaries of the \ving being small, but exceeding the 

 primary coverts. The toes and claws are very short, and the latter are stout. 

 The plumage is the same in both sexes. 



The desert-lark (A. desertorum) inhabits the deserts of Arabia and 

 Northern Africa, extending eastwards into Afghanistan and Western India. It is 

 thinly distributed throughout the desolate wastes in which it finds its home, living 

 in pairs, each of which enjoys the run of its own territory. This lark traverses the 

 sandy plains with great celerity. The song of the male is often uttered in the 

 breeding-season, but it is short and unpretentious. Breeding in May and June, 

 when it makes a small nest of dried grass on the sand, the desert-lark lays eggs, 

 which are greyish white, marked with yellowish brown. The plumage of many 

 birds has become modified in order to serve the purposes of concealment from their 

 enemies ; and the desert-lark, like other species that haunt sterile wildernesses, has 

 gradually assumed a plumage of an isabelline grey, tinged with ash on the forehead 

 and upper tail-coverts. The first primaries are black, with white bases ; the tail- 

 feathers black margined with fulvous, the two central feathers being sandy brown, 

 broadly edged with very bright fulvous ; a black streak passes through the lores 

 with a white band above and beneath ; a black band passes backward from the 

 eye ; the chin and throat are white, as is the abdomen ; but the fore-neck and 

 breast are pale fulvous, spotted with black. 



