176 
ALAUDA MAGNA. 
with great regularity. The eggs are four, sometin'*’’ 
five, white, marked with specks, and several laf^f 
hlotches of reddish brown, chieily at the thick cii“’ 
Their food consists of caterpillars, grub worms, beeth|’ 
and grass seeds, with a considerable proportion of gravj’ ' 
Their general name is the meadow lark; among 
Virginians, they are usually called the old field lark. . 
The length of this bird is ten inches and a k'’ I 
extent, sLxteen and a half; throat, breast, belly, 
ai" 
line from the eye to the nostrils, rich yellow ;”ins>‘*‘ 
lining and edge of the wing, the same; an oblo®^. 
crescent of deep velvety black ornaments the lo"'*' 
part of the throat ; lesser wing-coverts, black, bro**^ '1^ 
bordered with pale ash ; rest of the wing featb^’’^ 
light brown, handsomely serrated with black ; a 
of yellowish white divides the crown, bounded on e#*^ 
side by a stripe of black, intermixed with bay, 
another line of yellowish white passes over each 
backwards ; cheeks, bluish white ; back, and rest ^ 
the upper parts, beautifully variegated with bh't ' 
bright bay, and pale ochre ; tail wedged, the fcatbC- 
neatly pointed, the four outer ones on each side, ne!'^ 
all white ; sides, thighs, and vent, pale yellow 
streaked with black ; upper mandible, brown ; lo’'.'‘.’ 
bluish white; eyelids, furnished with strong black ha'’^' 
The female has the black crescent more skirted ■■ ^ 
gray, and not of so deep a black. In the rest of 
legs and feet, very large, and of a pale flesh colour. ^ 
The female has the black cvp^cput et-ir+ed n* ^ 
the plumage differs little from that of I 
markings, umu irom mat ^ 
male. 1 must here take notice of a mistake comnid ,.j 
by Mr Edwards in his History of Birds, vol. vi, p- 
where, on the authority of a bird dealer of London> 
describes the c<alandre lark, (a native of Italy "^,1 
Russia,) as belonging also to North America, -.ji, 
having been brought from Carolina. 1 can say ^ 
confidence, that, in all my excursions through ikat 
the rest of the southern States, I never met such » 
nor any person who had ever seen it. I ka'C . 
hesitation in believing, that the calandre is not a 
of the United States. 
