The bill is long and curved in Certhilauda and Alaemon, shorter and slender in Alauda, similar but more robust in Galerita, abbreviated and conical in Calandrella, Pyrrhulauda, and Melanocorypha, and extraordinarily stout in Rhamphocorys, with a gap between the maxilla and mandible. The metatarsus is elongated, and may be more slender as in Certhilauda, or stouter as in Galerita and Melanocorypha; the hind-claw is generally much lengthened and straight, but may be short and curved, as in Calandrella, Pyrrhulauda, and Alaemon. The wing varies much in length, many forms having the outer primary almost aborted, though in Mirafra and elsewhere it is of fair size; the inner secondaries are nearly as long as the primaries in Calandrella. The tail is moderate or short, and may be rounded, nearly square, or emarginate. The normal coloration is light-brown with darker longitudinal streaks, the under parts being whitish and frequently spotted anteriorly; desert forms, however, often have uniform pale buff or rufous plumage–for example, Galerita isabellina and Ammomanes. Melanocorypha yeltoniensis is nearly black in the male; others of the same genus have a black gorget; the black-cheeked Rhamphocorys, Alaemon alaudipes and Melanocorypha sibirica exhibit white wing-patches; while Otocorys has a projecting black tuft on each side of the occiput, black cheeks, lores, and bands on the crown and breast, the rest of the face and throat, or even the lower parts, being yellowish. Tephrocorys cinerea and Mirafra apiata have a rufous crown and breast respectively. Pyrrhulauda is chiefly black below, and varies above from grey to chestnut, relieved by black and white. Ordinarily the sexes in Larks are similar. Crests are not uncommon.
Certhilauda, Alaemon, and Ammomanes inhabit deserts or arid plains, Alaudula raytal frequents sandy islets, and Otocorys often selects uplands; but most forms only require open country, being chiefly ground-birds and seldom found near woods. Lullula, however, loves heaths and the outskirts of copses, and Mirafra bushy spots. Larks often flock together, and are not usually shy, since they will even enter villages; the desert species are particularly quick runners, while the flight is exceptionally weak in Ammomanes, Calandrella, and some others, though as a rule sufficiently strong. Perching is not an uncommon habit, Lullula and Mirafra habitually settle on trees or tall bushes, and several forms squat to avoid detection. In general dusting takes the place of washing. The food consists of insects and their larvae, seeds, worms, small molluscs, crustaceans, or even berries. Most Larks soar while uttering their pleasing trills, and plaintive calls are often heard; Lullula has a more flute-like song, Pyrrhulauda utters a shrill chirp. Galerita cristata and Melanocorypha calandra imitate other birds successfully when caged. The cup-shaped nest of bents, lined with finer grasses, fibres, or hair, is placed in herbage or in some depression in the soil–wool, cotton, rags, or even sticks being exceptionally added; but two or three species of Mirafra build a domed structure, occasionally placed on bare rocks or roofs of houses. The eggs are generally whitish, closely spotted or zoned with purplish-grey or brown; some specimens, however, are thickly freckled with yellowish or marked with reddish. The number varies from two in Pyrrhulauda, and about three in Ammomanes, to five, six, or even seven. Both sexes incubate in some cases, while two or more broods are often reared in the season. Thousands of Sky-Larks are netted annually for the table.
Fam. II. Motacillidae.–This group comprises the Sub-families Motacillinae, or Wagtails, and Anthinae or Pipits. The bill is thin and more or less elongated, with a slight notch, the culmen being decidedly curved in Oreocorys. The metatarsus is very long in Wagtails, variable but shorter in Pipits; it is usually slender, with the hind claw well developed and slightly curved; though it is stout, with very long hallux, in Macronyx, Xanthocorys, and Neocorys. The wing is commonly elongated and pointed, with the inner secondaries reaching nearly to the end of the primaries, but it is shorter and more rounded in some species of Anthus. The tail is very long in Wagtails, but moderate in Pipits, being generally somewhat emarginate.
Wagtails range over the Old World, but are lacking in Australia and Polynesia; two species extend to the extreme north-west of America, one is accidental in Greenland, and one is restricted to Madagascar. Pipits are almost cosmopolitan, though not found in Polynesia; only two forms, however, inhabit North America, while one is peculiar to New Zealand, and another to Australia; Anthus bogotensis is exclusively Andean, A. antarcticus occurs in South Georgia, A. bertheloti occupies Madeira and the Canaries.
Fig. 108.–Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla raii. × ⅜. (From Natural History of Selborne.)
Wagtails are generally black and white, grey and white, grey with yellow breast (or even head), greenish with yellow lower parts and greyish or black heads, or almost entirely yellowish. Most Pipits are brown above, with dark streaks, and light edges to the feathers, and are buff, whitish, or rufous below, with triangular brown spots. The outer rectrices are usually more or less white, as are sometimes part of the others. Limonidromus, however, is an olive-brown Wagtail with two black crescentic marks below, Anthus chloris a Pipit with a yellow patch on the breast. A. rosaceus has yellow axillaries; A. tenellus, has the wings, tail, cheeks, and under surface chiefly yellow, with a black pectoral band. The curious genus Macronyx, to its mainly brown coloration adds orange, yellow, or pink lower parts with a black gorget, while it shews a marvellous resemblance in other respects to Sturnella (p. [580])–M. crocea to S. magna, M. ameliae to S. defilippii. The bill and feet are usually black in Wagtails; the former is brown, with paler mandible and yellowish gape in Pipits, where the feet are brown, yellowish, or reddish. The females are duller, and in the Motacillinae the young are usually browner.
Wagtails frequent streams and stagnant waters, as in the case of the Pied, White, and Grey Wagtails, Motacilla lugubris, M. alba, and M. melanope; or they haunt fields of corn and meadows, as in the Blue-headed and Yellow Wagtails, M. flava and M. raii. All the above breed in Britain, but the White and Blue-headed species rarely. The Grey and the Yellow Wagtails both have yellow breasts, but the former has a grey, the latter an olive, back.
Pipits prefer open places with rough herbage, as for instance the Meadow-Pipit, Anthus pratensis; rocky shores, as the Rock-Pipit, A. obscurus; or open parts of woods and banks, as the Tree-Pipit, A. trivialis. These nest commonly with us, while the Red-throated Pipit, A. cervinus, the Tawny Pipit, A. campestris, Richard's Pipit, A. richardi, and the Water-Pipit, A. spipoletta, visit us occasionally. Flocks are rarely seen, but a few individuals often congregate on the sea-beaches in winter; the flight is easy, though jerky, and not protracted; that of Wagtails being distinctly undulating. Neocorys soars like a Sky-Lark, and the Tree-Pipit in particular hovers above his perch while singing. The songs of the last-named, and of Motacilla vidua are more Finch-like; that of Neocorys Lark-like; those of other species shrill, and less frequent than their repeated call- or alarm-note of chit-chit (Pipits) or chis-sic (Wagtails). The food consists of seeds, insects, worms, small molluscs and crustaceans, usually procured upon the ground, Wagtails hunting for flies round cattle, and being very commonly seen wading. Pipits make their nests almost entirely of grass, Anthus correndera and A. rufulus occasionally adding an overarching cover; Wagtails use moss, grass, and roots, with a bedding of hair and feathers. The four to six eggs are bluish white or brownish, with grey, blackish, or brown spots in the Pied Wagtail and its similarly coloured allies, yellowish-white with yellowish and greenish-brown markings in others of the Sub-family; in Pipits they are commonly greyish or yellowish-white with brown and grey mottlings, sometimes covering the whole shell; while in the Tree-Pipit they vary from grey with dark brown spots and streaks to reddish-white, with rich brown, claret-colour, or bright red markings or close frecklings. A black line or two is a common feature throughout the Family. Wagtails choose for nesting sites ledges of rocks, crevices, holes in trees or walls, tops of pollarded willows, stony banks, or–in the Yellow Wagtail group–hollows in the soil among herbage. Pipits prefer the ground, or even spots shaded by trees, as in the Tree-Pipit.
Fam. III. Henicuridae.–The Fork-tails, a group of doubtful affinity, generally placed near the Motacillidae, extend from the Himalayas and the hills of South and West China to Burma and the Great Sunda Islands, one of the species–some dozen in number–reaching Samarcand westwards. They are black and white birds, with stout, straight, and usually elongated bills, long, strong metatarsi without scutellation, moderate rounded wings, extraordinarily long forked and graduated tails–except in Henicurus scouleri, where the shape is square and the feathers short–and well-developed rictal bristles. The outer pair of rectrices are white. H. ruficapilla has an orange-chestnut crown and hind neck, nearly the whole back being chestnut in the female; that sex of H. velatus has a brown head; two species have the upper parts spotted with white, and two the back slate-coloured. Several of them have crests. The bill is black, the feet whitish. These active unsuspicious birds haunt forest-streams or hill-torrents, and hunt for molluscs, insects and their larvae, near or in the water. They often wag the tail when perched on stones or branches. The large nest is formed of fibres, roots, and moss, and is placed on rocks or tree-stumps; the three or four eggs are greenish-white, with scattered brownish spots.