202 LARK FINCH. 
June, at Bellefontaine, on the Missouri; and others were 
observed, the following spring, at Engineer Cantonment, near 
Council Bluffs. 
Tt seems probable that the range of this bird is limited, in 
a great measure, by the Mississippi on the east. Like the 
larks, they frequent the prairies, and very seldom, if ever, 
alight on trees. They sing sweetly, and often continue their 
notes while on the wing. 
The lark finch is six inches and a half long; its bill, a 
little notched at tip, is of a pale horn-colour, with a slight 
elevation on the roof of the upper mandible. The feet are 
pale flax-colour, tinged with orange; the irides are dark 
brown. On the top of the head are two dilated lines, blackish 
on the front, and passing into ferruginous on the crown and 
hind head, separated from each other by a whitish ciaereous 
line; from the eye to the superior mandible is a black line, 
which, as well as the eye, is enclosed by a dilated white line, 
contracted behind the eye ; from the angle of the mouth pro- 
ceeds a black line, which is much dilated into a ferruginous 
spot on the auricles; below this is a broad white line, 
margined beneath by a narrow black one, originating at the 
inferior base of the lower mandible; the chin and throat are 
pure white. The neck above, the back, and rump, are dull 
cinereous brown, each feather of the interscapular region 
having a blackish brown disk; the neck beneath and breast 
are dull whitish cinereous; a small blackish brown spot is on 
the middle of the breast ; the belly and vent are white. The 
wings are dusky brown; the lesser wing-coverts are margined 
with dull cinereous; the exterior primary is equal to the 
third; both are very little shorter than the second, which is 
longest; the outer webs of the second, third, and fourth 
primaries, being whitish near their bases, form a distinct spot 
on the wing. The tailis rounded, the feathers being blackish 
brown; the two intermediate ones are immaculate, somewhat 
paler than the others. The adjoining ones have a small 
white spot at tip, which, on the lateral feathers, increases in 
