PYRRHULAUDA. 247 



chosen, but in these situations also I have always observed the small 

 protecting stone." 



Colonel Legge sends the following note : — 



" This Little Lark is resident throughout the year in all the 

 eastern and north-eastern parts of Ceylon, and also in the dry 

 district of tlu» north-W(^st coast. I found it breeding this year 

 near Trinconmli(» in May and June. It commences to build at the 

 latter end of April, choosing the barest parts of open wastes, 

 commons, dried-up paddy fields, &c. Three nests, which I found 

 on the Esplanade, were constructed in holes scooped in the 

 ground, with the surface of which the top of the structure was 

 Hush. They were very loosely put together of small dry grass, 

 stalks and roots, bits of rag and pieces of thread and cotton, with 

 no particular lining, Eound the edge of the nests were placed a 

 neat little circle of small jneces of tile and hriclc, which, in this case, 

 must have been gathered in from some little distance, as the 

 ground hard by was quite bare. Two was the number of eggs in 

 these and other nests found." 



Mr. J. R. Cripps, writing from I'urreedpore, in Eastern Bengal, 

 says : — " Pretty common. I have not noticed it from Xovember 

 to February, and am of opinion that it leaves the district during 

 those months ; its habits, &c., are well described by Jerdon. I 

 once found its nest in the dry bed of the river that was in front 

 of my house ; it was on the 26th April, 1878 ; the nest was a 

 tiny cup-shaped affair of fine grass-roots, which were firmly held 

 together by damp sand, so much so that on taldng it up it appeared 

 like a ball cut in two ; it contained two fresh eggs ; there was not 

 even a small tuft of grass anywhere near where the nest was ; oidy 

 some tamarisk-shoots above and shading it."' 



The eggs, as might be expected, are typical Lai'ks' eggs, mode- 

 rately elongated ovals, some\\"hat pointed towards one end. The 

 ground-colour, yellowish-, greenish-, or greyish-white, is more 

 or less densely mottled, speckled, spotted, or finely streaked or 

 freckled (the character of the markings varying a good deal in dif- 

 ferent eggs) with various shades of yellowish and earthy brown or 

 grey. The markings are more hazy and indistinct as a rule in this 

 species than in either Mirafra assamica or 21. evythroj^tera, and 

 in some are so uniform and confluent as to obscure the ground- 

 colour entirely. With the exception of the eggs of A. rai/tal, these 

 are the smallest of all our Indian Larks' eggs. They have, like 

 those of the rest of their congeners, a more or less perceptible 

 gloss. 



In length they A^ary from 0-6.5 to 0*8, and in breadth from 0*5 

 to 0*62 ; but the average of thirty eggs is 0*73 by 0"55. 



