89 



BROWN LARK. 

 ALAUDA RUFA. 

 [Plate XLII.— Fig. 4.] 



Red Lark, Edw. 297. — Arct. ZooL No. 279. — Latham, II, 376. — VAlouette aux joues 

 brunes de Pensylvanie, Buff. V, 58. — Peale's Museum, No, 5138. 



IN what particular district of the northern regions this bird 

 breeds, I am unable to say. In Pennsylvania it first arrives from 

 the north about the middle of October; flies in loose scattered 

 flocks; is strongly attached to flat, newly-ploughed fields, com- 

 mons, 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 be- 

 fore 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. 

 Loosie 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 eighth of April I shot several of these birds in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Lexington, Kentucky. In Pennsylvania they gene- 

 rally disappear, on their way to the north, about the beginning of 

 May, or earlier. At Portland, 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. 



VOL. v. z 



