(493) 



36. Galerida cristata randonii Loche. 



Galerita randonii Loche, 1858 : Nomen nudum ; first descr. : Rev. & Mail. Zonl. ISrtO. p. 150, pi. xi., 

 fig. 2 (" Dans les plaiues oii croit abondamment le stipa tenacissima." Terra typica Ai'n 

 Oussera ; ex Cafalopiii', 1858.) 



Apparently restricted to the " Hants Plateau.x." 



The status of this form is as yet uucertain. It seems to have at least the size 

 of macrorhyncha, thus beiug larger than cartkaginis, and to be in colour between the 

 latter two forms. 



37. Galerida cristata arenicola Tristr. 



Galerida arenicola, Tristram, Ibi» 1859., pp. 58, 4'2(;. ('■ Hab. in Saharae Algeriensis regione arida." 

 " I met with it only in the extreme east of the Algerian and in the Tunisian Sahara "). 



While in the Ibis 1859, pp. 58, 426, as quoted above, no e.\aet localities are 

 given, Tristram stated in his book The Great Sahara, p. 300, that he obtained the 

 type on January 1, 1857, a little east of Temacin, at El Onibed : this statement, 

 however, is wrong. The description of the "species" does not agree with the two 

 birds from El Ouibed, which are G. theklae deichleri, and which Tristram called 

 ixaheUino, and arenicola was actually got near Tamerna, between Touggourt and 

 Biskra, these being the specimens to which the description applies and which are 

 labelled as the types oi arenicola by Tristram. 



We found this form from the plain of El Outaya, south of El Kantara, around 

 Biskra (except on the rocky hill-ranges where G. theklae hilgerti is found), and all 

 the way south to Touggourt and Temacin. It occurs in the sandy desert, along the 

 caravan routes, and here and there on cultivated land side by side with G. theklae 

 hilgerti, which as a rule, however, is far more a rock-haunting bird. 



While there is a great amount of individual variation in colour in all the forms 

 of Galeridae theklae, this G. cristata arenicola is remarkably constant — in fact, a less 

 variable series than ours from the plain of El Outaya to Temacin could hardly be 

 found. 



The measurements have been given above. 



[Galerida cristata carthaginis Kleinschm. and Hilg. 



is found in North Tunisia, but whether it occurs in North Algeria we are not able 

 to say. Wherever we collected in the north, we only found G. theklae karterti. 

 The wings of 18 skins measure only up to 113 and seldom more than 110 mm., but 

 generally not more than 109 to 111 mm., the smallest probably being females. The 

 cnlmen does not e.xceed 'Z'i'b mm. The colour is even darker and distinctly more 

 washed-ont than in G. c. inacrorhi/ncha.'] 



38. Galerida theklae harterti Erl. 



Galerida Iherklae harterd EvUnger, Journ.f. Orn. 1899. p. .332 (North Alguiia and Tunisia to the 

 northern slopes of the Atlas. Type evidently from North Tunisia). 



We found this very dark Lark, with an almost chocolate upperside, common 

 in the north of Algeria : in the " Sahel," i.e. the fertile region of vineyards and 

 fields between the coast and the northern slopes of the monntains, and all around 

 llamman Meskoutine to Bone, even up to l-'OD metres, on the Djebel Taya, east 

 of Hamman Meskoutine, between Coustantine and Guelma. We have also a 

 skin from Medea, one from Kerrata, and one from Uonstantinc, which evidently 



