Page "Lark" Paragraph 7

Larks are a well-defined family, partly because of the shape of their tarsus ( Ridgway 1907 ).

They were long placed at or near the beginning of the songbirds or oscines ( now often called Passeri ), just after the suboscines and before the swallows, for example in the American Ornithologists ' Union's first check-list ( American Ornithologists ' Union 1886, according to Patterson 2002 ).

Some authorities, such as the British Ornithologists ' Union ( Dudley et al.

2006 ) and the Handbook of the Birds of the World, adhere to that placement.

However, many other classifications follow the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy in placing the larks in a large oscine subgroup Passerida ( which excludes crows, shrikes and their allies, vireos, and many groups characteristic of Australia and southeastern Asia ).

For instance, the American Ornithologists ' Union places larks just after the crows, shrikes, and vireos.

At a finer level of detail, some now place the larks at the beginning of a superfamily Sylvioidea with the swallows, various " Old World warbler " and " babbler " groups, and others ( Barker et al.

2002, Alström et al.

2006 ).