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Genus CALANDRELLA. 



Alauda apud Leisler, Wetterauer Ann. iii. p. 557 (1814). 



Calandrella, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 39 (1829). 



Melanocorypha apud C. L. Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 311 (1831). 



Emberiza apud Franklin, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 119. 



Phileremos apud Keyserling & Blasius, Wirbelth. Eur. p. 37 (1840). 



Calandritis apud Cabanis, Mus. Hein. i. p. 122 (1850-51). 



Alaudula apud Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 390. 



The Short-toed Larks inhabit the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, and Oriental Regions, four species 

 being found in the Western Palsearctic Region. They frequent open country, both wild and 

 cultivated ; and in the autumn and winter they collect in large flocks, and, like the Sky-Lark, 

 range about the plains in search of food. They are very good songsters, their song, which is 

 uttered in the air, being even more melodious than that of the Sky-Lark. They feed on insects, 

 seeds, &c, and build a cup-shaped nest of grass-bents, which they place on the ground, and 

 deposit several greyish white or buffy white eggs spotted and blurred with hair-brown. 



Calandrella brachydactyla, the type of the genus, has the bill rather stout, short, com- 

 pressed, the upper mandible slightly arched, gape-line nearly straight; nostrils basal, oval, 

 concealed by bristly feathers directed forwards ; crown without elongated feathers ; wings rather 

 long, the first quill obsolete, the next three nearly equal, the third longest ; inner secondaries 

 much elongated, and nearly as long as the primaries; tail moderately long, slightly emarginate ; 

 legs rather long, the tarsus covered in front with six large and three inferior scutellse, and 

 posteriorly also scutellate ; claws short, slightly curved, except the hind claw, which is elongated 

 and nearly straight. 



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