Table of Contents for

Web Development with Node and Express

Colophon

The animals on the cover of Web Development with Node and Express are a black lark (Melanocorypha yeltoniensis) and a white-winged lark (Melanocorypha leucopter). Both birds are partially migratory and have been known to range far afield of their most suitable habitat in the steppes of Kazakhstan and central Russia. In addition to breeding there, male black larks will also winter in the Kazakh steppes, while females migrate southwards. White-winged larks, on the other hand, fly farther west and north beyond the Black Sea during the winter months. The global range of these birds extends still farther: Europe constitutes a quarter to one-half of the global range of the white-winged lark and only five percent to a quarter of the global range of the black lark.

Black larks are so named for the black coloring that covers nearly the entire body of males of the species. Females, by contrast, resemble the coloring of the male in only their black legs and the black feathers of their underwings. A combination of dark and pale grays covers the rest of the female.

White-winged larks possess a distinctive pattern of black, white and chestnut wing feathers. Gray streaks down the white-winged lark’s back complement a pale white lower body. Males differ in appearance from females of the species only in the males’ chestnut crowns.

Both black and white-winged larks evince the distinctively melodious call that has endeared larks of all variations to the imaginations of writers and musicians for centuries. Both birds eat insects and seeds as adults, and both birds make nests on the ground. Black larks have been observed carrying dung to their nests to build walls or lay a kind of pavement, though the cause for this behavior has not been identified.

Many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world. To learn more about how you can help, go to animals.oreilly.com.

The cover image is from Lydekker’s Royal Natural History. The cover fonts are URW Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.