B R O W N LARK.
the edge of the water as possible, and searching among the drifted leaves
and weeds for such insects as are usually found there. The vibratory
motion of their tail is now more perceptible, being quicker. Their feeble
notes are also frequently uttered. When shot along the shores, their
stomachs have been found filled with fragments of minute shells, as well
as small shrimps, and other garbage. When raised by the report of a
gun, they rise high, and sometimes fly to a considerable distance; but
you may expect their return to the same spot, if yon keep yourself concealed
for a few minutes. They are expert fly-catchers, inasmuch as
they leap from the ground, and follow insects on the wing for several
feet with avidity. The company of cattle is agreeable to them, so much
so, that they walk almost under them in quest of insects. When in fields,
the Brown Titlarks are often seen mixed with a few other birds known
by the name of Winter Larks, the habits of which I shall detail in my
next volume.
The species now under consideration reaches Louisiana about the
middle of October, and leaves it in the beginning of March. I caught
some of these birds on my passage from France to the United States, on
the Great Newfoundland Banks. They came on board wearied, and so
hungry that the crumbs of biscuit thrown to them were picked up with
the greatest activity. I am inclined to consider the Brown Titlark
identical with the Water Pipit of Europe.
ANTHUS SPINOLETTA, Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States, p. 90.
ALAUDA SPINOLETTA, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 288.
PIPIT SPIONCELLE, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. Part i. p. 2C5.
BROWN LARK, ALAUDA RUFA, Wilson, Araer. Ornith. vol. v. p. S9. PI. 4 2 . fig. 4 .
Adult Male. Plate X. Fig. 1.
Bill straight, subulate, depressed at the base, acute, the edges
slightly inflected at the middle, the gap not reaching to beneath the
eyes; upper mandible keeled at the base, afterwards rounded, slightly
notched and declinate at the tip. Nostrils basal, oval, half closed above
by a membrane. Head small. Neck slender. Body slender. Feet
longish, slender; tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with longish scutella,
longer than the middle toe; toes scutellate above, granulated beneath
; inner toe free ; hind toe with a very long, almost straight
claw, which, together with the rest, is slender, compressed and acute
B R O W N LARK. 51
Plumage blended, soft, with little gloss. Wings rather long, acute,
the first, second, and third primaries longest. Tail longish, forked, the
feathers rather narrow and sharpish.
Bill brownish-black. Legs and claws deep brown, tinged with
green. Iris brown. Upper parts olive-brown tinged with grey ; throat
and a line over the eye brownish-white. Quills brownish-black, margined
externally with whitish; tail of the same colour, the outermost
feather half white, the next obliquely white at the end. Under parts
reddish white, the sides of the neck and the breast longitudinally spotted
with dark brown.
Length 6^ inches, extent of wings 10^; bill T
7^ along the ridge,
§ along the gap; tarsus middle toe f; hind toe £ including the claw,
which is j 5 ^ .
Adult Female. Plate X. Fig. 2.
The female differs from the male only in being somewhat smaller, and
in having the colours paler, and the upper parts more tinged witli
brown.
D 2