BROWN LARKo 
179 
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 begin- 
ning 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. 
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. 
