coverts and tertials edged with huffy-white ; the two middle
tail-feathers nearly uniform light brown; the outer tail-
feather on each side light brown, with a buffy-white outer
margin; the other tail-feathers dark brown ; the chin white ;
neck in front, breast and under parts pale yellow-brown;
the breast and flanks streaked with darker brown: legs,
toes and claws, pale brown.
The whole length of the bird is six inches and three-
quarters ; the wing from the anterior bend to the tip of the
longest primary four inches and one-eiglith; the bill along
the ridge seven lines; the tarsus one inch; the hind toe
and claw nine lines.
The females are said to be smaller than the males, and to
have a shorter crest. The young are generally paler and
more rufous than the adults, and have all the feathers above
with a narrow, dark subterminal bar and a whitish tip.
To the description above given must be added that the
axillary feathers and lower wing-coverts are rufous-buff, and
that the wing-quills beneath have a border of the same
colour at the base of their inner web. This is a feature
common to all the Crested Larks which, from their thicker,
stronger and more curved bill, have been separated from the
genus Alauda by many authors. The proper name which
the group should bear is, however, doubtful. The earliest,
Galerida, given by Boie in 1828, is, when spelt correctly,
Galerita, found to have been preoccupied for a genus of
insects, and is, therefore, though very generally used, inadmissible.
The vignette below represents the breast-bone and the feet
of the Skylark of the natural size.
C a la n d r e l l a b b a ch y d a c ty la (Leisler*).
SHOET-TOED LABK.
Alauda brachydactyla.
C a l a n d r e l l a , K a u p \ .—Bill rather short, stout and compressed, upper mandible
arched and without notch. Nostrils basal, oval, closely covered by feathers
and bristles directed forwards. Gape straight. Head without elongated
feathers. Wings moderately long : first primary so small as at first sight to
seem wanting, second, third and fourth nearly equal, but the third longest;
secondaries short and emarginate at the t i p ; tertials very long, about equal to
the fifth primary. Tail rather long and slightly forked. Tarsus blunt and
scutellated behind as well as before, longer than the middle toe. Claws slightly
curved and very short, except that of the hind toe which is moderately elongated
and nearly straight.
At the end of October, 1841, I was informed by Mr. H.
Shaw, of Shrewsbury, that an example of the Short-toed
Lark had heen caught in a net near that town on the 25tli of
* Alauda brachydactila (misprint), Leisler, Annalen der Wetterauischen
Gesellschaft für die gesammte Naturkunde, iii. tab. xix. p. 357 (1814).
f Skizzirte Entwickelungs-Geschichte und Natürliches System der Europäischen
Thierwelt, p. 39 (1829).