136 BIRDS or EGYPT. 



100. Ammomanes lusitana (Gm.). Desert-Lark. 



The present species and its closely allied form A. frater- 

 cuius, Trist., are abundant throughout Nubia, frequenting 

 the confines of the desert. 

 . ^ k / ■. I h3,ve before me a series of twenty-four specimens of 



_ . Ammomanes from Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, and Abyssinia, 



' ' -'^ ^ ^ J apprently, at first sight, including three races : — 1st, the paler 

 one, the true A. lusitana, ranging throughout Egypt as far 

 as Assouan ; 2nd, A. fraterculus, Trist., very abundant in 

 Nubia and Upper Egypt, and agreeing precisely with typical 

 specimens from Palestine in Canon Tristram's collection ; 

 3rd, a race from Abyssinia, collected by Mr. Jesse, which is 

 much darker and smaller than A. fraterculus from Palestine. 

 Of these three races, the first and second, i. e. A. lusitana and 

 A. fraterculus (the only two which 1 have to consider in the 

 present work), appear to me to be simply subspecies or races, 

 and exhibit scarcely sufficient distinction to warrant their 

 separation into different species ; for when we examine a 

 series collected between Cairo and Assouan, these two races 

 merge imperceptibly into each other. Yet in the present 

 work I have separated them imder their distinctive names, 

 A. lusitana being described from one of my paler specimens 

 collected at El Kab, and A. fraterculus from a type specimen 

 in Canon Tristram's collection from Palestine, which agrees 

 perfectly with most of my Nubian birds. 



Upper plumage pale sandy colour, inclining to cinnamon 

 on the rump and base of the tail ; wings and tail pale brown, 

 with sandy edgings to the feathers ; underparts cream- 

 colour ; beak flesh-colour, darkest towards the culmen ; legs 

 pale brown; irides brown. 



