646 , The Sparrow-like Birds 



which is usually uttered while, with tail expanded, the bird is soaring in the air, 

 but it is also given while they are perched on a low stone or clod of earth. They 

 begin nesting early in the season, often while there is still snow on the ground, 

 usually choosing the benches of the prairies or higher ground, where they place 

 the slight nest of dried grasses in a shallow depression by the side of a tuft of 

 grass, a stone, or other object. Both parents take part in incubation and are 

 very solicitous for eggs and young, often trying to lead an intruder away. The 

 eggs are usually three or four in number and are olive-buff thickly specked 

 and spotted with brownish and dark lavender. Two and sometimes three broods 

 are reared in a season by certain of the forms. 



Without attempting to distinguish between the obscurer forms, it may be 

 mentioned that the common Horned Lark of North America (O. alpestris) is of 

 large size, being between seven and a half and eight inches in length, and has 

 the upper parts dark, the throat and eyebrow sulphur-yellow, and a large patch 

 of yellow on the side of the head and upper breast. This bird is found in sum- 

 mer in Newfoundland, Labrador, and the Hudson Bay region, coming south in 

 winter into the eastern United States. Considerably smaller than this, and with 

 the nape, rump, and bend of the wing more pinkish, is the Old World form 

 (O. a. flava) which summers in the extreme northern part of Norway and 

 Sweden, northern Russia, and Siberia, while in winter it visits the British 

 Isles and central and southern Europe. The other commonest American 

 forms are the Pallid-horned Lark (O. a. leucol&ma) and the Prairie Horned 

 Lark (O. a. praticola). 



Skylarks. Turning now to the Old World for the remainder of this family, 

 we may well commence our account with its most celebrated members, the Sky- 

 larks (Alauda), of which there are several species and probably many subspecies. 

 They have a rather short though slender bill, the nostrils covered by plumelets, 

 rather long, pointed wings in which there are ten primaries, the outer being 

 minute, a moderately long, slightly forked tail, and a very long* nearly straight 

 hind claw. In coloration the plumage is dark brown above, each feather 

 broadly edged with fulvous and pale fulvous and whitish beneath, the cheeks 

 and throat slightly and the breast broadly streaked with black; their length 

 approximates seven inches. The best-known species, and the one about which 

 centers so much of classic prose and poetry, is the Skylark par excellence (A. 

 arvensis}, a common and familiar bird throughout much of Europe and Asia. 

 It is found in open places, such as pastures, commons, downs, and .mountain 

 slopes, but more especially in cultivated areas, having greatly increased in num- 

 bers and range with the spread of agricultural improvement; in fact, we are 

 told that it is probably the most abundant bird in western Europe. From 

 early spring until midsummer they are spread here and there throughout this 

 vast area engaged in rearing their young, of which there are usually several 

 broods, but by September they commence to congregate in flocks, often of enor- 

 mous numbers, and to range about the country in search of food. In the more 

 northern portions of their habitat they appear to be entirely migratory, depart- 

 ing for the south on the advent of severe weather; but in Great Britain and the 



