:Ank, or become brown. It lays four or five eggs, which arc dusky and blotched with deep brown; its fecundity is inferior to that of the sky-lark, and its numbers are not so great: it breeds earlier, since its young are sometimes flown in the middle of March, and therefore they pair in February, at which time, and not be fore, they part with their last year's brood; whereas the common lark does not hatch before the month of May. This is a very tender and delicate bird ; so that it is impossible to rear the young taken out of the nest: but this is the case only in England and such cold climates, for in Italy they are removed from the nest, and reared at first like the nightingale, and afterwards fed upon panic and millet. The wood-lark feeds on beetles, caterpil lars, and seeds: its tongue is forked; its stomach muscular and fleshy; and it has no craw, but a moderate dilatation of the lower part of the oesophagus, and its circa are very small. It lives ten or twelve years. The males are distinguished front the females by their larger size ; the crown of the head is also of a darker co lour, and the hind nail longer ; its breast is more spotted, and its great wing-quills edged with olive, which in the female is grey. The wood-lark mounts high, war filing its notes, and hovering in the air; it flies in flocks during the winter colds ; it is found in Sweden and Italy, and is probably dispersed through the interve ning countries, and consequently over the greatest part of Europe. It is also found in Siberia, as far as Kamtschatka, and likewise in the island of Madeira. The best time for taking this bird for the cage is July, or the preceding or follow ing month. Those that are put into the cage at this time sing presently; but their song-time is not lasting, for they soon fall to moulting, in which state many die; but if they get over it, they com monly prove very healthful afterwards, become very tame and familiar, and sing sweetly. Those which are taken in the latter end of September are generally ve ry strong and sprightly; but they do not sing till after Christmas. Those taken in February filially prove the best °fall ; they generally begin singing in two or three days, or at the utmost in a week after they arc taken. The cock bird of this kind is known from the hen by the loudness and length of his call, by his tallness as he walks shout the cage, and by his doubling his notes in the even ing, as if he were going with his mate to roost. A better rule than all others, however, is his singing strong; for the hen wood-lark sings but very weakly. Both the cock and hen of this kind are tender, and subject to many disorders ; the principal of these are, cramps, giddiness of the head, and breed ing lice. Cleanliness is the best cure for the first and the last of these but we know of no cure for the other. good strong bird will last very well for five or six years, and frequently improve during the whole of this time. The lark is not only a very agreeable bird for the cage, but it will also live upon ahnost anv food, so that it have once a week a fresh tuft of three-leaved grass put into the cage with it. The wood-lark is one of the sweetest of our singing-birds, and is indeed very little inferior to the nightin gale, when in good health; hut we are not to judge by such as are made feeble by improper food, or want of cleanliness in their cages.
ALIIINOS,in zoology, a denomination given to the white negroes of Africa, who have light hair, blue eyes, and a white body, resembling that of the Europeans, when viewed at a distance ; but upon a nearer approach, the whiteness is pale and livid, like that of leprous persons, or of a dead body. Their eyes are so weak that they can hardly see any objectin the day, or bear the rays of the sun, and yet, when the moon shines, they see as well, and run through the deepest shades of their forests with as much ease and ac tivity, as other men do in the brightest day-light. Their complexion is delicate ; they are less robust and vigorous than other men ; they generally sleep in the day, and go abroad in the night. The negroes regard them as monsters, and will not allow them to propagate their kind. In Africa this variety of the human spe cies very frequently occurs. Wafer in forms us, that there arc white Indians of the same general character among the yellow or copper-coloured Indians of the isthmus of Darien. It has been a subject of inquiry, whether these men form x pe culiar and distinct race, and a permanent variety of the human species, or are merely individuals who have accidently degenerated from their original stock. Bodkin inclines to the latter opinion, and he alleges in proof of it, that in the isth mus of America a husband and wife, both of a copper colour, produced one of these white children ;so that the singu lar colour and constitution of these white tidians must be a species of disease athich they derive from their parents; and the production of whites by negro parents, which sometimes happens, con firms the same theory. According to this author, white appears to be the pri mitive colour of nature, which may be varied by climate, food, and manners, to yellow, brown, and black; and which, in certain circumstances, returns, but so much altered, that it has no resemblance to the original whiteness, because it has been adulterated by the causes that are assigned. Nature, he says, in her most pertect exertions, made men white ; and the same nature, after suffering every possible change, still renders them white: but the natural or specific whiteness is very- different from the individualor acci dental. Of this we have examples in veg-etables, as well as in men and other animals. A white rose is very different, even in the quality of whiteness, from a red rose, which has been rendered white by the autumnal frosts. He deduces a farther proof that these white men arc merely degeneratedindividuals, from the comparative weakness of their constitu tion, and from the extreme feebleness of their eyes. This last fact, he say s, will appear to be less singular, when it is considered that in Europe very fair men have generally weak eyes ; andhe has re marked that their organs of hearing are often dull : and it has been alleged by others, that dogs of a perfectly white co lour are deaf. This is a subject which demands farther investigation. Buffon's Natural History.