88 ALAUDID^, LARKS. — GEN. 25. 



25. Genus CISTOTHORITS Catoanis. 

 "^ Short-billed Marsh Wren. Dark brown above, crown and middle of 

 back blackish, nearly everywhere consjncuojisly streaked with white; below 

 buffy white, shading into pale brown on sides and behind ; wings and tail 

 barred with blackish and light brown ; flanks barred with dusky ; throat and 

 middle of belly Avhitish : ii ; wing and tail about If ; bill not J long and 

 very slender ; tarsus and middle toe and claw together about 1^. Eastern 

 United States, in reedy swamps and marshes, not common. Troglodytes 

 brevirostris. Nutt., i, 431; Aud., ii, 138, pi. 124; Bd., 365. stellaeis. 



Family ALAUDIDiE. Larks. 



A rather small group, well defined by the character of the feet, in adaptation to 

 terrestrial life. The subcylindrical tarsi are scutellate and blunt behind as in front, 

 with a deep groove along the inner side, and a slight one, or none, on the outer 

 face. Other characters (shared, however, with some Motacillklce) are the very long, 

 straight, hind claw, which equals or exceeds its digit in length ; the long, pointed 

 wino-s, with the 1st primary spurious or wanting, and the inner secondaries (" terti- 

 aries") lengthened and flowing. The nostrils are usually concealed by dense tufts 

 of antrorse feathers. The shape of the bill is not diagnostic, being sometimes 

 short, stout and conic, much as in some FringilUdm, while in other genera it is 

 slenderer, and more like that of insectivorous Passeres. The family is composed, 

 nominally, of a hundred species ; with the exception of one genus and two or three 

 species or varieties, it is confined to the Old World. Its systematic position is 

 open to question ; Lilljeborg removes it from Oscines altogether, probably on 

 account of the peculiarities of the podotheca ; authors generally place it near the 

 FringilUclce, perhaps from the resemblance of the bill of some species to that of the 

 finches ; but it has many relationships with the MotacilUdm, and in the arrangement 

 of this work I find no better place for it than here, though it has no special affinity 

 with the preceding familj'. Moreover, the fact that it has indifferently nine or ten 

 primaries may indicate a natural position between the sets of families in which 

 number of primaries is among the diagnostic features. According to shape of bill, 

 structure of nostrils, and number of primaries, the family may be divided into two 

 subfamilies, the Alaudince, typified by the celebrated skylark of Europe, and the 



Subfamily CALANDBITINu^, 



Eepresented in America by the single genus EremopJdla, of which there are 

 nominallj' ten, really four or five, species. The birds of this genus have the bill com- 

 pressed-conoid, shorter than the head, the nostrils densely feathered, and appar- 

 ently only nine primaries (though I suspect that a rudimentary 1st primary exists 

 in the condition mentioned under Ampelis and Vireo) ; the point of the wing 

 formed by the first three primaries ; the tail of medium length and nearly square ; 

 and a peculiar little tuft of lengthened feathers over each ear, like the "horns" of 

 certain owls. They frequent open places, are strictly terrestrial in habits, and 

 never hop when on the ground, like most Passeres ; they are migratory in most 

 localities, and gregarious, except when breeding ; nest on the ground, and lay 4-5 

 speckled eggs ; sing sweetly in the spring time. 



