28 



BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ALAEMON ALAUDIPES DESERTORUM (Stanley) 



Alauda desertorum Stanlety-, in Salt's Voyage en Abyssinie, Appendix, p. Ix, 

 1814: Amphila Island, Red Sea (see p. xlix). 



Specimens coixected : 3 males, 1 female, Djibouti, French Somaliland, Novem- 

 ber 22, 1911. 



The hoopoe lark has been divided into four races, all of which seem 

 to be valid [A. alaudipes omdurmanensis being a synonym of inerid- 

 ionalis). In the regions traversed by the Frick expedition only one 

 race occurs, the pale, sandy form of the desert country bordering 

 the Eed Sea. This subspecies appears to be restricted to the low, 

 maritime plain from Suez south along both sides of the Red Sea 

 to as far as Aden, Arabia, and Djibouti, in French Somaliland. 

 Zedlitz does not mention this lark in his account of the avifauna 

 of southern Somaliland. In the regions where it occurs it is a 

 common bird. Thus, Pease found it to be plentiful in the vicin- 

 ity of Zeila and Aroharlaise, northern Somaliland, and Perci- 

 val,^" working in southern Arabia, met with it in "the low deserts 

 near the sea, commonest along the coast to the west of Shaik Othman 

 and eastwards towards Dar Mansur. None were seen beyond the 

 belt of Mimosa trees to the south of Lahej, and only one or two 

 were met with in the Abian Country." 



The present specimens are in somewhat worn plumage. The males 

 are much larger than the female, as the measurements given in table 

 3 show. 



Table 3. — Measurements of four specimens of Alaemon alaudipes desertorum 

 from Djibouti, French Somaliland 



Another female from Aden, Arabia, is even smaller than the present 

 one. 



In coloration, the most variable feature is the distinctness (size 

 and intensity) of the pectoral spots. All are distinctly spotted on 

 the breast (much more so than in typical alaudipes from lower 

 Egypt), but in one bird the spots are less veiled, more blackish, than 

 in the others. Blanford ^° noted similar variation in his series. 



=» In Ogilvie-Grant, Nov. Zool., vol. 7, p. 247, 1900. 



8" Observations on the geology and zoology of Abyssinia, made during the progress of the 

 British expedition to that country in 1867, pp. 386-387, 1870. 



