10. ALAUDA. 571 



its range as regards the characters which I have mentioned. Mr. 

 Erooks considers it to be a larger bird than our Sky-Lark, and 

 certainly the average length of the wing in the male is from 4(3 to 

 4"S inches, and of the females from 3'9 to 4'2o inches. The males 

 therefore do exceed the average of the dimensions of ordinary 

 A. arvrnsis, but there is a great deal of variation in a series of A. 

 cantarella, both in size and colour. Some specimens are so brown 

 that it is difficult to separate them from A. arvensis. Again, the 

 Krasnoyarsk and Chinese specimens have very thin bills, and so 

 have some of the Turkestan birds ; but the specimens with slender 

 bills are found in other localities, and a gradation is found with 

 A. arvensls on the one hand and A. ipih/ahi on the other, bj' way 

 of A. liojnis. The thin-billed A. cantarella are slightly smaller 

 ( cS , wing 4-1-4-5 inches ; Sowing 4'05-4-l), but, as with true 

 A. arvensis, size does not go for much. 



The adult male of the form known as A. liopus ( = A. r/nttata of 

 Brooks) is similar to A. arveusis, but distinguished by its much 

 more rufous wing and rufous ear-coverts ; the eyebrow is very bi'oad 

 and distinct posteriorly, so as to give the appearance of the head of 

 a Wood-Lark. 



Writing in 1871 in the 'Birds of Europe ' I considered that the 

 Skj-Lark of Cashmere was a small race of A. arvensis, and some 

 specimens in the Museum still bear my determination of that 

 date. Mr. Brooks afterwards named the Cashmere Lark Alauda 

 (/uitata, but subsequently he came to the conclusion that it was the 

 same as A. leiopus of Hodgson. With this identiiication I thoroughly 

 agree, after comparing the types of the two species together : though 

 Nepalcse sptecimens are large. Between A. guttata and A. liopus a 

 certain difference is observable in a series ; thus in Cashmere and 

 Gilgit the coloration is much more dingy brown, never so rufous, 

 and the abdomen is not so pure white. Gradually tliroughout the 

 Himalayas the species becomes more and more rufous on the upper 

 parts and whiter on the belly, and especially rufous on the wing. 

 The most rufous of all the birds are the specimens from Japan. 



The wings in the Cashmere and Sikhim specimens vary from 3'7 

 to 4'25 inches in the males, and from 3"35 to 3'75 inches in the 

 females, so that there would appear to be not much difference in 

 size between the sexes, as is also the case with A. gulgvla. 



In the Japanese specimens the wing in the male varies from 3'75 

 to 4-15 inches. The large form from E. Siberia and Kamtschatka 

 {A. blal-intoni) is in colour similar to A. JiojJus, but is larger and 

 the black markings on the back and scapulars exhibit a tendency to 

 coalesce. Wing 4'6— 1"8 inches. The wing in the female varies 

 from 4*3 to 4'5 inches. 



JIah. The whole of Europe and Xorthern Asia, the Himalayas 

 and X.W. India, and extending through Northern and Central 

 China. 



n. \nv. alb. sk. England. Montagu Coll. 



b. \a\: alb. sk. England. Dr. Day [P.]. 



c. Vav. alb. sk. England. W. J. tlughes, Esq. [P.]. 

 ,/,r. Var.mol.sk. England. Old Coll. ' 



