{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 63.] 1917 [March. 



AN OVERLOOKED OCCURRENCE OF THE 

 BLACK LARK IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By William Eagle Clarke. 



It has been the custom in this magazine to allude to the 

 occurrences of the rarer animals which have been observed 

 or captured in various parts of the British Isles other 

 than Scotland. Now it is desired to draw attention to an 

 old-time record of a visit of one of the rarest birds on 

 the British list, namely, the Black Lark {Melanocorypha 

 yeltoniensis) to Middlesex in or about 1737. This appears 

 to have hitherto escaped the notice of ornithologists, 

 perhaps because it was regarded as an aberration ; indeed, 

 Latham, in his Synopsis (ii., pt. 2, p. 370, 1783), considered 

 it to be a dusky variety of the Skylark a conclusion 

 which the writer does not consider justifiable. This 

 interesting account, which predates by 170 years the 

 hitherto supposed first record of this bird's appearance in 

 Britain, is contained in Albin's Natural History of Birds 

 (vol. iii., p. 47), published in 1738, and is as follows: "The 

 Black Lark, Plate 51. The Bill of this Bird was of a dusky 

 yellow ; the Irides of the Eyes yellowish. It was all over of 

 a dark reddish brown, inclining to black, excepting the 

 hind part of the Head, on which was some dusky yellowish 

 63 G 



