124 BLACK LARK. 



It has been captured rarely and accidentally in Germany, and still 

 more rarely in Belgium. On the authority of Dubois we have the 

 record of one being trapped in the neighbourhood of Brussels, in 1850, 

 and which he found in the market for sale. The person who caught 

 it assured M. Dubois that there was a large flock, but he was only 

 able to get one. M. Croegaert is also quoted by M. Dubois as having 

 taken one in the neighbourhood of Anvers, in 1852, and kept it alive 

 during several weeks. According to Pallas it is found in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Anvers, in Tartary, between the Volga and Iaik Bivers, 

 whence it emigrates dimng the winter. It occurs also in the Steppes 

 of Asia, and in the south of Africa. 



"This bird," says M. Dubois, "inhabits during the summer in large 

 flocks, the most extensive and infertile plains, where they may be seen 

 from time to time on the sand-hills. They emigrate in autumn, and 

 arrive during the rigorous winter at the villages and towns on ftieir 

 route, whence they penetrate to the interior. They return to the 

 Steppes during the earliest days of spring. Their flight is to short 

 distances, not very quick, and rather low. It is in general a careless 

 bird; its song is not very good, and it generally sings seated upon a 

 hillock; its call note is heard (very rarely) when it rises into the air. 

 Its nourishment is insects and their larvse, worms, and seeds; it makes 

 its nest upon the ground in a little excavation, and knows very well 

 how to hide it in spite of the great aridity of the soil. The nest is 

 made without art or skill; it is composed of blades of grass, roots, and 

 moss: in the interior small rootlets, and sometimes feathers. It contains 

 from four to five eggs." 



The bird differs much in plumage at different seasons and ages. 

 In summer the entire plumage of the male is black: beak yellow, with 

 the point brown, and in the breeding dress in spring it is, as repre- 

 sented in my figure, black, with the feathers of the back, rump, and 

 flanks more or less bordered with white. In the autumn it is yellow 

 grey, with scale-like spots, (according to Degland,) on the crop; 

 stomach, wings, and tail black, the quills of both wing and tail 

 bordered with grey white. 



The female has, according to Temminck, all the plumage of a paler 

 black, with the forehead greyish, and all the feathers of the neck, of 

 the throat, and crop finely bordered with grey. 



The young resemble the female, but the plumage has more of a 

 brown shade, the brown of the feathers broader and more yellowish, 

 the tail and wing quills being bordered with the same colour. 



My figure is taken from a male specimen, from the Volga, sent 

 me by Mr. Tristram. The egg is from my own collection, sent to me by 



