12. ALATJDtJLA. 591 



2. Alaudula raytal. 



Alauda mytnl, B!i/th, J. A. S. Beng. xiii. p. 962 (1844, ex Buch. 



Hamilton MSS.) ; id. op. cit. xv. p. 40 (1S4C); Grat/, Hand-l. B. 



ii. p. 119, no. 7779 (1870) ; Swinh. Sf Barnes, Ibis, 1885, p. 130. 

 Calandrella raytal, Blijth, Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. ]>. 1:32 (1849). 

 Mirafra raytal, Grag, Gen. B. iii. App. p. 18 (1849). 

 Alaudula raytal, Horsf. Sf Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 471 



(18o6) ; Jerd. B. Ltd. ii. p. 428 (1833) ; Hcdijs. Icon. ined. in 



Bibl. Soc. Zool., Passeres, pi. 762. tigs. 1, 2 (no. 911) ; Gray, 



Cat. Mamm. etc. Nepal, p. 58 (1863) ; Hume, Nests S,- Eyys hid. 



B. p. 481 (1873) ; Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. Beng. xliii.p. 171 (1874) ; 



Blytji Sf Wald. B. Burm. p. 95 (1875) ; Hume, Sir. F. iii. p. 1-59 



(1876) ; Ayiders. Rep. Zool. Exped. Yun-nan, p. 606 (1878) ; 



Cripjis, Str. F. vii. p. 295 (1878) ; Hume, Str. F. viii. p. 109 ; 



Scully, t. c. p. 338 ; Oates, Handb. B. Burm. i. p. 374 (1883) ; 



Hume, Str. F. xi. p. 288 (1888). 



Adult male. General colour ashy grey, the feathers narrowly 

 streaked with blackish shaft-lines, slightly less marked on the rump ; 

 wing- coverts ashy grey, with similar blackish shaft-streaks to the 

 median and lesser series, all of them margined with ashy whitish ; 

 bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills dusky, edged and friuged 

 at the tip with ashy whitish, the first primary white along the outer 

 web ; centre tail-feathers brown, darker in the middle, and pale 

 ashy on the edges, the remainder of the feathers blackish, edged 

 with ashy brown, the penultimate feather white along the outer 

 web, the outer feather almost entirely white, with a dusky-brown 

 edge to the inner web ; head like the back, but more distinctly 

 streaked with blackish mesial spots ; lores and a broad eyebrow 

 white, tinged posteriorly with isabelline ; ear-coverts brown, streaked 

 with hoary whitish ; feathers around and below the eye white, as 

 also the fore part of the cheeks ; hinder cheeks brown, like the ear- 

 coverts ; throat and under surface of body white, the fore neck and 

 chest streaked with central triangular spots of dusky brown ; sides 

 of upper breast ashy ; the flanks isabelline and faintly streaked with 

 dusky ; thighs isabelline ; under tail-coverts and under wing-coverts 

 white ; quiUs dusky below, ashy whitish along the inner web : 

 "bill horn-colour with a greenish tinge, the tij) dusky, the gape 

 yellowish ; legs fleshy yellow, claws horn-brown ; iris brown ; eye- 

 lids plumbeous ; mouth flesh-colour " {E. W. Oates). Total length 

 4-4 inches, culmen 0-5, wing 3*2, tail 1'7, tarsus 0"7o. 



Adult female. Similar to the male in colour. Total length 4'6 

 inches, culmen 0"5, wing 3*1, tail 1*65, tarsus 0-7. 



In the breeding-season the plumage becomes abraded, and the 

 wearing away of the pale tips leaves the upper surface more spotted ; 

 otherwise there is scarcely any difference between winter and 

 summer plumage. As a rule, but not invariably, the males seem 

 to me to be rather more plentifully spotted on the chest than the 

 females. 



Hah. Sandbanks of the Ganges, Kerbudda, Brahmaputra, and 

 Irawady llivers and their afiluents. 



