234 ALAlTDIDiE. 



tat't of grass, clod of earth, or overhanging stone. The nest varies 

 from a shallow pad 4 or 5 inches in diameter, with a slight central 

 depression as an egg-cavity, to a neatish and regular cup, with a 

 f nlly hemispherical cavity. Exteriorly the nest is always composed 

 of more or less tine grass, just like those of all the preceding species, 

 bat unlike theirs the nests have generally a more or less regular 

 lining of very fine grass, cotton, m'ooI, soft vegetable fibres, hair, 

 and even a few feathers. I think that, as a rule, the nests of this 

 spi'cies may be distinguished at a glance by the lining from those 

 of all our other Larks with \a Inch their eggs could be confouuded. 

 Three is the largest number of eggs that I have found as yet in 

 any nest, but others report five. 



Colonel G. F. L. Marshall sent me the following note on the 

 iiidification of this species. He says : — " The Crested Lark, to 

 judge from the two or three nests I have seen, breeds in March in 

 the Saharunpoor District, the young being hatched early in April. 



" The nest is placed on the ground in a slight hollow beside a 

 tuft of grass or a small her bush. 1 found one nest in the middle 

 of a village-cart track near a low bush, between the wheel-tracks. 

 The nest is cup-shaped, formed by lining a hollow in the earth 

 with grass, roots, fibre, and little bits of straws, dry wheat-leaves, 

 and stringy bark, neatly put together, so that the sides are level 

 with the ground. There is no pei'ceptible lining. The size of the 

 egg- receptacle is about 2^ inches in diameter and 2 inches deep, 

 but the material did not hold together sufficiently well to retain 

 the shape after it had been taken out of the ground. 



" The eggs, three in number, were slightly glossy, of a white 

 ground, profusely speckled, spotted, and blotched with \arious 

 shades of yellowish and pale purplish brown. In one the specklings 

 were so close all over the egg as almost to conceal the ground- 

 colour, and in all tlie markings are much thickest at the large end, 

 where they have a tendency to form a nearly confluent cap." 



Major C. T. Bingham writes : — " 1 have only found two nests 

 of this Lark, and both at Delhi, one on the 3 1 st March and the 

 second on the 23rd April. The former, which was a deep cup, 

 was placed under the shade of a bush, in a deepish hole wliich I 

 am inclined to think the bird itself dug. It was composed of 

 straw without any lining. The latter nest was placed in the centre 

 of a clump of surpat grass, and was composed of the same materials. 

 Two fresh eggs were in the first nest, and four hard-set ones in 

 the second." 



From Bambhur Mr. E. M. Adam writes: — "The Crested Lark 

 is very common. It breeds about April and May. On the 29th 

 April I saw a nest all but finished in a wheat-field. In young 

 birds the head and wing-coverts are spotted with dusky white." 



Mr. \V. Theobald makes the following note on the nidificatiou 

 of this bird in the neiglibourhood of I'iiid Dadan Khan and Katas 

 in the Salt Range : — " Lay from the fourth week of March to the 

 3rd May : eggs four; shape ovato-pyriform, measuring from 0-82 

 t(j 0-88 in length, and from 0-G4 to 0-0(5 in breadth ; colour yel- 



