ĂLAUDA, a Gaulish word, the prototype of the modern French
_Alouette_, denoting a small crested bird of the lark kind. The name
alauda was bestowed by Julius Caesar on a legion of picked men, which
he raised at his own expense among the inhabitants of Transalpine
Gaul, about the year B.C. 55, which he equipped and disciplined after
the Roman fashion, and on which he at a subsequent period bestowed
the freedom of the state. The designation was, in all probability,
applied from a plume upon the helmet, resembling the “apex” of the
bird in question, or from the general shape and appearance of the
head-piece.