NESTING IN WESTERN INDIA. 323 



759.— THE PALE RUFOUS FINCH LARK. 

 Ammomams deserti, Licht. 

 The Pale Rufous or Desert Finch Lark is common on the bare 

 rocky bills of Sind, breeding during the months of April, May and 

 June. I have never met with a nest myself, but a good description 

 of both nest and eggs is given by Mr. Hume in his Nests and Eggs 

 Indian Birds,. The nests are said to resemble those of the Black- 

 bellied Finch Lark (Pt/rrhtilaada grisea), but to be much larger. 

 The eggs, three in number, are very regular ovals; they have a faint 

 gloss, and the shell is fine and smooth. " The ground colour in 

 white, with a scarcely perceptible brownish, greyish, or greenish 

 tint, varying in different eggs, and they are speckled and spotted 

 with pale yellowish-brown, more thickly so at the larger end, where 

 they have a tendency to form an irregular cap or zone ; where the 

 markings are most dense, there are usually a few tiny clouds or spots 

 of pale lilac. They vary a great deal in size, but the average appears 

 to be rather more than 0*82 inches in length by 06 in breadth. 



760. -THE BLACK-BELLIED FINCH LARK. 

 Pyrrhulauda grisea, Scop. 

 The Black-bellied Finch Lark is common throughout the 

 Presidency, frequenting the bare open plains but eschewing the 

 forest tracts. They seem to breed at all seasons, as I have taken 

 eggs in each month of the year, with the exception of July and 

 August, but February and March are, I believe, the months in which 

 most nests will be found. They are small and saucer-shaped. 

 Sometimes it is a mere pad, with a depression in the centre for the 

 eggs ; others are much more carefully made, and are tiny cups, small 

 even for the size of the bird. It is placed on the ground, usually 

 on the side of a small stone, clod of earth, or tuft of grass; 

 sometimes in a hoof print without any shelter ; should the depression 

 in which it is placed be too shallow, they arrange a small row of 

 pebbles, not so large as marbles, round the edge, to increase the 

 depth. The nest is composed of fine grass, fibres, and goat's hair. 



The eggs, two in number (once only have I found three), are 

 longish ovals in shape, pinched in at one end, and are of ayellowish- 

 or greyish-white ground colour, densely marked with spots, specks, 

 and streaks of earthy- and yellowish-brown. They average about 



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