BROWN LARK. 
185 
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 
exterior 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. 
