32-4 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1S90. 



0-78 inche,s In length, by rather less than 0*55 in breadth. If 

 confined in a small cage, they seem very restless and unhappy, 



but a pair I kept isi a large aviary seemed quite contented, and tools 

 became fairly tame, 



760.— THIS BLACK-CROWNED FINCH LARK. 



Pyvrhulauda melanaucfien, Cah 



Y\ i ih in our limits the Black-crowned Finch Lark seems confined 

 to Sind. Mr, Doig, who found them breeding there, says-: — "This 

 bird, wherever there are sand drifts, is very common, and is never, 

 so far as my experience goes, found in company with .Pyrr/itdanda 

 grisea ; they breed at the end of February and beginning of March, 

 at the end of May and commencement of June, and again iu the 

 end of August and beginning of September. One breeding ground 

 I found in this latter month, was situated away from the Narra, 

 some ten miles out in the desert, near some salt deposits, and where 

 rain had evidently fallen, as there was a considerable growth of 

 grass. The nests were very similar to those of Pyrrhulaiida grisea 

 both in size and description, and were invariably placed at the root 

 of some tuft of grass, on. the north side, evidently to shelter it from 

 the hot wind. In this place I collected over forty eggs. They are 

 very similar to those of P. grisea, perhaps as a rule more boldly 

 marked, and some of them had well-defined rings of colour round 

 the larger end. The normal number of eggs is two. 



701. —THE SHORT-TOED OR SOCIAL LARK. 



Calendretta brac/iydactyla, Leisl. 

 Mr. J. A. Murray, in his Handbook to the Geology, Botany, and 

 Zoology of Sind, page 188, says: — " Common everywhere on the 

 plains of Sind, breeding in April and May" ; and again in his 

 " Vertebrate Zoology of Sind," he says : — "Breeds in April and 

 May." I think this is a mistake. I feel sure that the Social Lark 

 breeds nowhere within our limits. If it does, it is strange that Mr. 

 Doig, Captain (now Colonel) Butler, or myself, never found a nest. 



762fer.— THE INDUS SAND LARK. 



Alaudula adamsi, Hume. 

 The Indus Sand Lark is not uncommon along the banks of the 

 rive: 1 , near Hyderabad. The only nest (at least I think it was 



