LARK. 273 



Inhabits Provence, in France ; male and female always together, 

 whether in the time of incubation, or in search of food, which is 

 caterpillars, grasshoppers, snails, &c. One, similar in plumage, is 

 found at the Cape of Good Hope, but without a crest ; the under 

 parts inclined to yellow, without any white on the wings and tail ; 

 this may probably be a female, or young bird. M. Temminck thinks 

 the European one to be a Variety of the Crested Lark. 



6 —LESSER CRESTED LARK. 



Alauda cristatella, Tnd. Orn. ii. 499. 

 ' nemorosa, Gm. Lin. i. 797. 



cristata minor, Rail, 69. A. 5. Will. 155. Bris. iii. 361. Id. 8vo. i. 411. 



Lulu, Petite Alouette huppee, Buf. v. 74. PI. enl. 503. 2. 



Lesser Crested Lark, Gen. Syn. iv. 391. Br. Zool. i. No. 141. Id. fol. 95. Id. Ed. 

 1S12. 487. Will. Engl. 209. Lewin, iii. p. 9. Shaw's Zool. x. 505. 



WE learn from Aldrovandus, that it is less brown than the 

 Greater Crested Species, but that the tuft on the head is larger in 

 proportion ; and that the legs are red. — This very short description 

 is certainly insufficient to enable us to discriminate it from others ; 

 but in the collection of Mr. Lewin was a bird, thought to be the 

 one in question. It was six inches and three quarters long, and the 

 wings reached to within three-fourths of the end of the tail, which 

 was a trifle forked at the end, as in the Skylark ; the outer feather 

 pure white on the outer web, and half an inch of the inner, the rest 

 brown ; the second with the outer margin only white, and the feathers 

 rounded at the ends; the legs dusky red brown, hind claw bent, and 

 just the length of the heel ; the fore toes shorter by half, and less 

 than half the strength or size of those of the Sky or Wood Lark, colour 

 of the claws black. The egg of this bird is eleven lines in length, 

 pale, dull, purplish red, with dark coloured blotchings all over. 

 According to the late Mr. Bolton, it is in plenty in Yorkshire. Said 



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