•^iO CLASS AVES. 



• 



of the day, and never when on the ground, but utter then a 

 peculiar sort of cry. 



This lark can run with the rapidity of a field mouse, espe- 

 cially when disturbed, and on the point of taking to flight. 

 All the larks are pulverating birds ; but this one is so particu- 

 larly attaclied to powdering itself with dust, that, on being 

 supplied with some in a state of captivity, it will immediately 

 testify its joy by a little soft cry, frequently repeated, and by 

 precipitate movements of the wings, and bristling of all the 

 feathers. It will plunge instantly into sand or ashes, as other 

 birds do into water, remains there a long time, wallowing in 

 all sorts of ways, and does not come out of it until it is 

 so covered with it, that its plumage is scarcely to be distin- 

 guished. 



The Clapper Lark (Alauda Apiata) is of South Africa. 

 It usually makes its nest in some small grass, and lays from 

 four to five eggs, of a greenish gray. It seldom rises more 

 than from fifteen to tv/enty feet above the ground, and makes 

 a particular noise, occasioned by the precipitate motion of its 

 wings, which being heard at a great distance, has caused the 

 Dutch colonists to call the bird Clapert-Liwerk, which 

 Levaillant has translated Alouette Bateleuse. When in the 

 season of its amours it rises to the height above-mentioned, 

 it utters a cry resembling the syllables pi-ouit, the last 

 syllable of which is elongated during its descent. It descends 

 with the wings closed, and in an obliqvie line to the earth, 

 where it rests scarcely half a minute, and then rises again. 

 It sings in the morning, in the evening at sim-set, and for 

 most part of the night. 



The Red-backed Lark chiefly delights in plains abounding 

 with bushes. It perches readily on these, and even on the 

 trees which are at the edges of woods. Its song is agreeable. 



The Alpine Lark (Al. Alpestris) inhabits the most northern 



