Pipit spioncelle, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. Part i. p. 265.
Brown Lark, Alauda rufa, Wilson, Amer. Ornith. vol. v. p. 89. Pl. 42. 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.
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 6½ inches, extent of wings 10½; bill 7⁄12 along the ridge, ⅔ along the gap; tarsus 11⁄12, middle toe ¾; hind toe ⅚ including the claw, which is 5⁄12.
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 with brown.