282 Mr. B. Alexander on the 



up into the air witli wings closed above her head, uttering 

 the whole time his note, which becomes tremulous as the 

 flight upward is completed, and then he drops down again 

 with a float-like motion of the wings almost upon the head 

 of his consort. 



The eggs, two in number, are laid on the bare ground, in a 

 depression, or underneath a stone, or among the ruins of a 

 wall. Their ground-colour is a dirty white, blotched and 

 spotted with reddish brown, with underlying markings of 

 purplish grey, which often form a thick zone round the 

 larger end. Measurements : length l"'0-0"*9, breadth 0"'7- 

 0"'63. Incubation is performed by the female, and while 

 she sits the male bird will decoy with antics the intruder 

 right into the opposite direction to where the nest is situated. 



Spizocorys raz^. 



On Oct. 7th we approached Raza for the second time 

 within the year, and we discovered the males of this very 

 local species all busy in courting their mates. With wings 

 droojiing and scraping along the ground, a male would 

 approach and circumvent a female, and then rise above her 

 head and pour out his song as he ascended vertically with a 

 gentle beat of wings, and not in the spiral circles that charac- 

 terize the impetuous singing flight of our Sky-Lark. The 

 song, uttered both on the wing and when stationary, consists 

 of the call-notes constantly repeated. In the early morning, 

 when numbers of these Larks were singing overhead, it was 

 not unusual to find some singing in chorus, and this tended 

 to lessen the somewhat monotonous character of their songs. 

 When on the ground a ventriloquial call-note was constantly 

 uttered, becoming very persistent just towards dusk. 



The nest is placed in a small depression in the loose stony 

 soil, either among a patch of grass, or underneath a boulder 

 or a small creeping plant common on the island. It is a 

 frail structure of dry grass, and if any attempt be made to 

 detach it from its surroundings it falls to pieces in the hand. 

 Incubation lasts for a period of 13 days, both sexes sharing 

 in the task. The eggs, three in number, resemble both in 



