(489 ) 



because a male from Ain Onssera is tlie only specimen mentioned by Loche in 

 the Catalogue, of 1858. Although the two species fonnil in one locality ahv;iys 

 agree to a certain extent, and sometimes wonderfully, in their coloration, they 

 differ in habits. The cristata-forvafi have a short song, uttered often on the ground, 

 or daring a short flight, while the song of (r. theklae is longer, ver}' rarely uttered 

 on the ground, Imt generally while soaring skywards. This habit is noticeable in 

 the northern dark form, but still more in the paler ones on the southern slo])es 

 of the mountains ; and it is most developed in the sandy l)ale desert-form, which 

 often remains for twenty or thirty minutes in the air and is almost lost to sight, 

 its beautiful, melancholy song filling the solemn tranquillity of the desert. 



The twd species, the longer-billed (i. cristala and the shorter-billed (1. t/icklac, 

 however, do not differ only in appearance and song, but also in their eggs : wliile 

 those of the forms of G. cristata have large blotches, those of the theklae-iwm% have 

 small spots and dots and as a rule a stronger gloss. Thus a series of clutches 

 presents a very different aspect, though single eggs of the one species might closelv 

 resemble or not be distinguishable from certain varieties of the other. 



Note on Galeriua chistata MACRoRHrncnA. 



The types in the Tristram collection, a male and a female, were collected 

 at Laghouat in South Algeria, iu November 1856. 



They differ considerably in size, as is more or less the case with all 

 (Jrested Larks, but especially with the long-billed forms of the cntsttita grouji. 

 In colour they are less rufescent than G. c. nggenhachi from Morocco, a little 

 darker than G. c. (irenicola of the eastern Algerian Sahara (sontli of El Kantara, 

 Biskra, (!)ued R'hir, Touggourt, etc., and the corresponding parts of Tunisia), and 

 less dark than Nortb Tunisian long-billed Crested Larks. Therefore, judging 

 from the type sjiecimens and a still darker sjiecimen from the Riocour collection 

 labelled " Galerida Random" and said to come from the Algerian Sahara, one 

 of us united the birds from Laghouat and North Tunisia under the name of 

 G. c. macrorhyncha, though puzzled by their curious distinction. 



Messrs. Kleinschmidt and Hilgert {Orn. Monatsber. 1905, p. 188) separated the 

 North Tunisian birds as G. cristata carthaginis ; this was done merely for zoo- 

 geographical reasons. They say (t.c. p. 19U) that the type of G. macrorhi/nc/i<t 

 Tristr. might be either an abnormally dark specimen of aretdcola or gafsai'. or 

 a light riggenbaidd, and that the distribution of the form would be enigmatical 

 if it were the same as " carf/iagi/d.'i" from North Tunisia. Therefore they gave 

 a name to the latter, but they did not attempt to say how it differed fnim 

 G. c. mdrrorlii/nclia and G. c. randoini. They only stated how it differed 

 from G. c. (irenicola and " ga/sae," which we do not separate from arenicolu. Un- 

 doubtedly, however, both macrorln/nclia and randoidi are nearer to cartlaKjinis 

 than the very j)ale areidcola. 



In 1911 we were able to go down to Laghouat and collect a series of 2'i 

 specimens of the long-billed Crested Lark, topotypical G. crist. macrorhi/ncha, at 

 Laghouat and the country of the Dayats south to Ghardaia. Having shortly 

 before shot the long-billed Crested Larks near Biskra, we were at once struck 

 by their great similarity ; we had expected to ttnd a conspicuously darker and 

 larger form, while, according to our recollection, there was no api)reciable 

 difterence. 



