Crown without a crest, but occiput with an erectile tuft of narrow elongated feathers on each side. No spurious primary; tail square, or slightly rounded … Eremophila.
Calandritinæ. Bill broader, more depressed, and straighter at the base; nasal fossæ longitudinal, large, elongated, the nasal opening rather linear. (Old World.)
Of the Alaudidæ only the two genera diagnosed above belong to the American continent; and one of them is properly only a wanderer from the Old World, while the other is cosmopolitan.
The most characteristic feature of the Larks among other oscine families is seen in the scutellation of the tarsus. The anterior half of this is covered by divided scales lapping round on the sides, but instead of the two plates which go one on each side of the posterior half and unite ultimately behind as an acute ridge, there is but one which laps round on the sides, and is divided into scales like the anterior ones, but alternating with them. The posterior edge of the tarsus is as obtuse as the anterior, instead of being very acute. There is a deep separating groove on the inner side of the tarsus; and there may be really but one plate divided transversely, the edges meeting at this place.
In the elongated hind claw and lengthened tertials, general style of coloration, mode of life, and manner of nesting, there is a decided approximation in the Alaudidæ to the Anthinæ, of the family Motacillidæ; but in these the posterior edge of the tarsus is sharp and undivided transversely, the toes more deeply cleft, the bill more slender, etc.,—their relations being rather nearer to the Sylvicolidæ than to the present family.
Genus ALAUDA, Linn.
Alauda, Linn. S. N. 1735.
Gen. Char. Bill very small, less than half the length of the head, conical; nostrils exposed; rictal bristles quite strong; commissure without notch; tarsus much longer
than middle toe; lateral toes equal; posterior toe about as long as the middle, its claw longer than the digit, and nearly straight; claws of anterior toe very small. Wing long, pointed, the third and fourth (apparently second and third) quills longest, the second and fifth successively, a little shorter; the first so small as to be almost concealed; tertials much elongated, reaching about half-way from end of secondaries to tip of primaries; their ends emarginated; tail rather deeply emarginated, and a little more than half the length of the wing.
Species.