THE Sky-LaRK. 173 
“The Larks may be said to grade to the Finches on the one hand, through 
Monttfringilla and Plectrophanes; and, on the other, into the Pipits through 
Corydalla.” 
The chief characteristic of the family is the scutellation at the back of 
the tarsus; and it is probably because of this peculiarity (and not because 
they are allied to the Crows) that Howard Saunders subordinating his own 
views, as he says, “to those of the majority of the B. O. U. Committee re- 
specting the positions of the A/audide and the Corvide”’ has placed the Larks 
at the end of the Fasseres, all the other groups having the feet scaled only 
in front. 
The Larks are walking birds, building and in many species roosting on 
the ground: with the exception of the more arboreal forms, they rarely perch 
on trees; and when they do, they select the thicker branches. They do not 
wash, but dust themselves after the manner of Sparrows or Gallinaceous birds. 
Their food consists of spiders, centipedes, insects, larva, and seeds or grain. 
Larks are powerful flyers, their wings being large and pointed; the wings 
of the males are also stronger and more elongated than those of the females, 
doubtless to enable them to maintain their soaring hovering flight when singing: 
as a natural result of this increase of wing-power the sternum is somewhat 
more prominent, giving greater fulness to the chest. By these characters the 
bird-catchers are enabled to tell the sex of Larks directly they grasp them, 
the male being, in their own words, “a handful.” 
Practically the A/audide constitute an Old World family, one species only 
occurring in North America, whilst, as Jerdon observes, “They are very sparingly 
tepresented in Malayana and Australia.” 
