their song can readily determine, by their notes, whether the singer is ascending, stationary, or descending. Occasionally, when at this great elevation, the Lark will close its wings and drop to the earth with the rapidity of a stone. At times it will sing while on the ground, but its most lively strains are poured forth during these flights. And though this bird will sing while in confinement, and is a favorite cage-bird, yet in singing they are said to flutter their wings, as if this motion were almost a necessary accompaniment to their song.
In regard to the song and its peculiarities writers are not quite in agreement. The general opinion seems to be that, while in the quality of its tone it is surpassed by the song of the Nightingale, the Bulfinch, and the Black-cap, it is unequalled in quantity, sprightliness, variety, and power. The Lark is in song eight months of the year, and during the summer months it sings from two in the morning, with very little intermission, until after sunset.
Mr. Macgillivray gives an excellent and graphic description of the habits of this bird, from which we extract a portion descriptive of its song. “It has been alleged,” he writes, “that the Lark ascends in a spiral manner, but my observation does not corroborate the statement. In rising it often passes directly upward, but with the body always horizontal, or nearly so, then moves in a curve, and continues thus alternately, but without a continued spiral motion. At first, the motion of the wings is uniformly fluttering; but afterwards it shoots them out two or three times successively at intervals, and when at its greatest height exhibits this action more remarkably. When it descends, the song is not intermitted, but is continued until it approaches the ground, when it usually darts down headlong, and alights abruptly. Frequently it resumes its song after alighting, and continues it for a short time, but more commonly it stops when it has reached the ground. Often a Lark may be seen hovering over a field, in full song, for a considerable time, at a small height. On the 4th of May, 1837, I observed a Lark perched on a half-burnt whin branch, where it remained singing a long time. I have often seen it perch on a wall, and several times on a hawthorn bush in a hedge; but it never, I believe, alights on tall trees.
“The song of the Lark is certainly not musical, for its notes are not finely modulated, nor its tones mellow; but it is cheerful and cheering in the highest degree, and protracted beyond all comparison. In a sunny day in April or May, when the grass-fields have begun to resume their verdure, it is pleasant to listen to the merry songster that makes the welkin ring with its sprightly notes; in the sultry month of July, still more pleasant is it to hear its matin hymn while the dew is yet on the corn; and in winter, should you chance to hear the well-known voice on high, it reminds you of the bright days that have gone, and fills you with anticipation of those that are to come. No doubt much of the pleasure derived from the Lark’s song depends upon association, but independently of circumstances and associations the song of the Lark imparts an elasticity to the mind, elevates the spirits, and suspends for a time the gnawing of corroding care. The carol of the Lark, like the lively fife, excites pure cheerfulness. In confinement this bird sings every whit as well as when at large, and when rapidly perambulating the square bit of faded turf in its cage, it enacts its part with apparently as much delight as when mounting toward heaven’s gate.”
This bird succeeds well in cages, and lives to a great age, Yarrell mentioning one that lived nearly twenty years in confinement. Its natural food is grain, the seeds of grasses, worms, and various kinds of insects. They begin to mate in April, and have two broods in a season. Their nest is always placed on the ground, often sheltered by a tuft of grass, or some other protection. The nests are woven of coarse grasses and stems of plants, and are lined with finer materials of the same. The eggs are five in number, have a grayish-white ground, occasionally a greenish-white, very generally sprinkled and blotched with markings of dark-gray and an ashy-brown, so profusely as to conceal the ground. They are oval in shape, slightly more pointed at one end, and measure .93 of an inch in length by .70 in breadth.
According to Selby, the young of the first brood are fully fledged by the end of June, and the second in August. The Lark evinces a very strong attachment to its young, and many interesting accounts are given by European writers of its intelligent endeavors to conceal and to protect its nest,—in one instance constructing an artificial dome of dry grass, where the natural protection had been cut away by mowers, and in another attempting to remove the young to a place of greater safety.
The Lark has, in several instances, been successfully induced to mate and rear her young in an aviary; and Mr. W. P. Foster, of Hackney, is quoted by Mr. Yarrell as authority for the statement, that, during the period of producing the eggs, the female has been heard to sing with a power and a variety of tone equal to the voice of her mate.
While his mate is sitting on her eggs, the male Lark, apparently timid at all other times, is remarkably bold, and drives away other birds that venture too near their nest. He not only watches over her and seeks to protect her, but assiduously supplies her with food.
Eremophila, Boie, Isis, 1828, 322. (Type, Alauda alpestris. Sufficiently distinct from Eremophilus, Humboldt, [Fishes,] 1805.)
Phileremos, Brehm, Deutschl. Vögel, 1831.
Otocoris, Bonaparte, 1839. (Type, Alauda alpestris, Gray.) (We are unable to find where the genus is named.)
Gen. Char. First primary wanting; bill scarcely higher than broad; nostrils circular, concealed by a dense tuft of feathers; the nasal fossæ oblique. A pectoral crescent and cheek-patches of black.
♂ Eremophila alpestris.
This genus differs from Melanocorypha in having no spurious first primary, although the other characters are somewhat similar. Calandritis of Cabanis, with the same lack of first primary, has a much stouter bill. The spurious primary, more depressed bill, and differently constituted nostrils and nasal fossæ of Alauda are readily distinctive.
Eremophila alpestris.
The type of this genus is the Alauda alpestris, Linn., a well-known cosmopolitan species, though the birds of the New World have been distinguished under distinctive names, as cornuta, chrysolæma, peregrina, etc. The examination and critical comparison of more than a hundred specimens from all parts of North America, however, has convinced us of the identity with alpestris of the several forms mentioned above, though it may be advisable to retain one or more of them as geographical races.
E. alpestris. Adult. Above pinkish-gray, varying to cinnamon, the pinkish deepest on nape and lesser wing-coverts; tail black (except two middle feathers), the outer feather edged with white. Beneath white, the sides pinkish or grayish. A frontal band and superciliary stripe, the middle of auriculars, chin, and throat varying from white to deep Naples-yellow; forepart of crown, and “ear-tufts,” a patch on lores and cheeks, and a broad crescent across the jugulum, deep black; end of auriculars ashy. Female and autumnal males, with the pattern less sharply defined, and the colors more suffused. Young. Brownish-black above, more or less mixed with clay-color, and sprinkled with whitish dots; wing-feathers all bordered with whitish. Beneath white. Markings on head and jugulum just merely indicated by dusky cloudings.
Wing (of adult male), 4.20 to 4.60; tail, 2.90 to 3.16; culmen, .60 to .65.
White frontal band, .25 to .30, wide; the black prefrontal patch, .26 to .35 wide. The pinkish above of an ashy-lilac shade.
Throat and forehead white, with only a very faint tinge of yellow; pinkish tinge above more rufous. Hab. Interior Northern Plains of the United States … var. occidentalis.
Throat
