264 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



space of ground, and is chiefly composed of grasses, coarser outside 

 and finer inside, often with some particles of vegetable down as a 

 lining. The usual number of eggs appears to be three or four, and 

 these vary a good deal in size and shape, as well as in their colouring 

 and marking. The ground colour, however, is generally a dull white, 

 and the marking consists of grey or pale lilac shell spots, and yellowish- 

 brown surface-spots, sometimes distributed evenly over the entire egg, 

 but more often concentrated at the blunt end, in the form of a zone. 

 Some eggs, however, in my collection, have a distinct ring of spots at 

 the finer end. The measurements of a number of eggs vary from 

 23 to 25 mm. in length, by from 16 to 18 mm. in breadth. 



GALERIDA THEKL.ffi SUPERFLUA (Hartert). 



PALE SMALL-BILLED CRESTED LAEK 



Galerida theklee superflua, Hartert, Nov. Zool. vol. iv, p. 144 (1897). 

 Alauda cristata pallida, Whitaker, Ibis, 1895, p. 100. 

 Galerita thecklse superflua, Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1899, p. 335. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Tamerza, South-west Tunisia. 



Differs from G. thckla major in being a pale sandy-brown instead of dark 

 greyish-brown, and the markings on the breast, as well as the under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries, are also paler. 



Soft parts and measurements almost as in G. t. major. 



Adult female similar to the male, but rather smaller. 



Observations. — Although, as stated by me in the Ibis for 1898 (p. 603), 

 the present and following forms of small-billed Crested Lark intergrade to a 

 great extent, I find they differ so much from one another in their extremes 

 of variation that I have decided to keep them separate. Were the two to 

 be united, the darker northern form would have to follow suit, as it inter- 

 grades with the present form quite as much as the latter does with the 

 isabelline form. 



This form of small-billed Crested Lark was first recognised and 

 described by me as a new species under the name of Alauda cristata 

 pallida (Ibis, 1895, p. 100, and 1896, p. 90). Owing, however, to this 

 name having been previously given by Brehm to some form of Crested 

 Lark from Spain, it was subsequently replaced by the name under 

 which it now stands. 



As already observed in the preceding article, G. tliekla superflua is 

 a pale sandy-brown form of Crested Lark belonging to the Thehlm 



