1 86 BROWN LARK. 



fields, commons, and such like situations ; has a feeble note, 

 characteristic of its tribe ; runs rapidly along the ground ; 

 and, when the flock takes to wing, they fly high, and generally 

 to a considerable distance before they alight. Many of them 

 continue in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia all winter, if 

 the season be moderate. In the southern States, particularly 

 in the lower parts of North and South Carolina, I found these 

 larks in great abundance in the middle of February. Loose 

 flocks of many hundreds were driving about from one corn- 

 field to another ; and, in the low rice-grounds, they were 

 in great abundance. On opening numbers of these, they 

 appeared to have been feeding on various small seeds, with a 

 large quantity of gravel. On the 8th of April, I shot several 

 of these birds in the neighbourhood of Lexington, Kentucky. 

 In Pennsylvania, they generally disappear, on their way to 

 the north, about the beginning of May, or earlier. At Port- 

 land, in the district of Maine, I met with a flock of these 

 birds in October. I do not know that they breed within the 

 United States. Of their song, nest, eggs, &c, we have no 

 account. 



The brown lark is six inches long, and ten inches and a 

 half in extent ; the upper parts, brown olive, touched with 

 dusky ; greater coverts and next superior row, lighter ; bill, 

 black, slender; nostril, prominent; chin and line over the 

 eye, pale rufous ; breast and belly, brownish ochre, the former 

 spotted with black ; tertials, black, the secondaries brown, 

 edged with lighter ; tail, slightly forked, black ; the two ex- 

 terior feathers, marked largely with white ; legs, dark purplish 

 brown ; hind heel, long, and nearly straight; eye, dark hazel. 

 Male and female nearly alike. Mr Pennant says that one of 

 these birds was shot near London. 



