Lark
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Lark. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a family of small birds. There are over 100 Old World species--trim, alert birds with sparrow--like plumage. The common skylark, celebrated for its powers of flight and its song poured out while soaring and floating at great heights, is a modest brown bird of the open fields. It nests in open commons in the shelter of a tuft of grass or a clod, and feeds on seeds, insects, and worms. It breeds throughout Europe and temperate Asia, migrating southward for the winter, but is known chiefly as the English skylark. Attempts have been made to introduce it in Long Island and elsewhere. The American representatives of the family are the horned larks which, like their British relatives, have a long hind toe and walk with a graceful, elastic step or a swift run, instead of hopping like a sparrow. A tuft or horn of black feathers on each side of the head, and a sulphur-yellow forehead and throat, are sufficient to attract attention to the horned shore lark. It breeds in Northern Canada and winters in New England and southward. The prairie horned lark is a trifle smaller. The yellow spots are paler, or even white. It is a bird of the western plain, but has extended its nesting range into the Upper Mississippi Valley and eastward. It is a winter resident, associating with snowbirds. If an adult sparrow-like bird runs familiarly along the road in front of one and flies ahead from time to time without showing the white outside tail feathers of the vesper sparrow, the chances are good that it is a prairie horned lark. Look for the short black tufts on its head. The following lines are a poet's description of a skylark: Hail to thee, blithe spirit, Bird thou never wert, That from heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher, From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.--Shelley, The Skylark.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the genus Alauda. species are the best known: the skylark, A. arvensis; the shorelark , A. alpestris; the crested lark, A. cristata; and the woodlark, A. arborea. The skylark, with some variations of coloring, leading some ornithologists to suppose that there may V (1859), and four or ry; also compiled and Poems, etc." (1876); de in Poetry" (1877); oston, Mass., April 17, of the hog. Till after the 19th century lard culinary purposes and bus ointments in mediarge quantities were emperature, by which leine were separated . ed for candle-making; became an important under the name "lard bricant for machinery. by and county-seat of the International and the Mexican National, railroads; 153 miles W. It is the trade center border. Laredo is in cande coal belt; is a victims of lung trou- Laredo Seminary; con- Mexican National Railnd has manufactures of s, deposits of coal, iron, opper, a large interna trade, National banks, periodicals, and an a valuation of $2,000,000. 355; (1920) 22,710. ering-place of Ayrshire, Firth of Clyde, 14 miles Here, Oct. 12, 1263, Scotland and the Norse and the Isles, Alexander co of Norway, who with .000 men had descended yrshire. -re'sä) (called by the famous in ancient town of Thessaly, now of Larissa on the Salambria In the fertile plain of of silk and cco; and is the seat' Larissa was the operations in the peration; it was ceded by ece in 1881. Pop. about d Greeks and one-third Four enus Alauda. st known: the skylark, shorslark, A. alpestris: A. cristata; and the orea. The skylark, with of coloring, leading some suppose that there may be more species than one, extends all through Europe to the Himalayas and China. The name lark is given in the United States to the Alauda cornuta, the horned lark . or shore lark, and in Australia to Marifra horsfieldii, or the bush lark. The tit-lark belongs to the family Motacillidæ.