CALENDULA CRASSIROSTRIS. 513 
being deep chestnut and the patches on the sides of the breast much 
larger and extending farther down the sides of the body, the centre 
of the chest being also washed with rufous. 
Young.—Above blackish, some of the feathers washed with sandy 
colour, but all of them terminally spotted or edged with creamy 
white, producing a pretty and variegated. appearance; hind neck 
greyish mottled with dark brown and spotted with creamy white ; 
head blackish varied with sandy rufous bases to the feathers and 
spotted with creamy white; lores and a broad eyebrow whitish, as 
also the sides of the face, which have, however, a mark of brown on 
the cheeks under the eye, while the ear-coverts are dark brown 
washed with rufous and spotted minutely with creamy white; under 
surface whitish, the breast and sides of body mottled, with dark 
brown bases to the feathers inclining to rufous on the sides of the 
breast; under wing-coverts whitish ashy; quills brown broadly 
margined with rufous, the outer web of external primary fulvous 
white, the inner secondaries broadly edged with whitish; rump and 
upper tail-coverts bright fawn colour spotted with white, before 
which is a subterminal spot of dark brown; tail blackish-brown, the 
outermost feather white on the outer web crossing the inner one 
obliquely near the tip, the two centre feathers rufous near the base 
and margined with whitish towards the tip. 
Fig. le Vaill. Ois. d’Afr. iv, pl. 199. 
509. CaLENnDULA crasstrostris (V.) Thick-billed Lark. 
Alauda crassirostris (V.): Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 208. 
The first primary is very well developed in the genus Calendula, 
being longer than the inner toe and claw. The nostrils are covered 
with stiff bristly plumes, and the bill is very stout, being much 
deeper than it is broad. 
This fine Lark frequents equally the cultivated and bush-covered 
lands. It feeds on insects and seeds; and makes a rough nest 
in September in a depression of the soil, under the shelter of a low 
bush, or large clod of earth, and lays four or five eggs of a very 
pale cream colour, profusely dotted throughout with small light 
brown and purple spots. Axis, 11’’’; diameter, 8’”’. 
Captain Shelley shot specimens at Ceres and Stellendorf in 
January, 1874, and it is abundant throughout the colony, extending 
into the eastern districts, as we have received it from Hopetown 
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