288 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



Adult female paler than the male and more uniformly isabelline in its 

 coloration, with less black on the underparts, and slightly smaller in size. 



Young : underparts uniform isabelline, the primaries and tail-feathers 

 broadly margined with that colour ; no black on sides of head or underparts ; 

 breast slightly spotted with greyish-browu ; bill yellowish ; feet flesh-colour. 



The present species was first described by Bonaparte (ex Tem- 

 luinck MS.) from a specimen purporting to have been obtained in 

 Egypt, but no ornithologist or traveller in recent times appears to 

 have met with the bird in that country. 



According to Mr. Dresser (Birds Eur. iv, p. 388), the type 

 specimen, which is now in the Leyden Museum, was sent from Egypt 

 by Clot-Bey, Physician-in-Ordinary to Mehemet-Ali, and von Henglin, 

 who himself never met with the species on the Nile, thinks that 

 it may have been procured in the western portion of Egypt bordering 

 the Libyan desert. This is not improbable, as Mr. E. Dodson, when 

 collecting for me in Tripoli and Cyrenaica, met with the species 

 in districts situated not far west of the above desert, and its range 

 may very possibly extend right across that desert into Western 

 Egypt. 



This Lark, a true desert species, occurs only in the more southern 

 districts of Tunisia, and even there is somewhat local in its distribu- 

 tion. I have, however, met with the species near Gafsa, and even 

 a few miles further north of that town, where some rocky undulating 

 country and sandy "oueds" are to be found in a dip between the 

 mountains, through which the main caravan route passes from 

 Feriana to Gafsa. This depression or valley, lying between fairly 

 high mountains on each side, seems to be used not only by man, 

 but also to a great extent by birds on migration, and during the 

 periods of their passage is a capital spot for observing their move- 

 ments and habits. In addition, however, to the migrants, this par- 

 ticular locality, no doubt owing to its varied physical character, 

 appears to attract some of the more southern sedentary species, for 

 besides Bhampliocorys clot-bey, I have there met with and obtained 

 specimens of Ammomanes c. arenicolor and Alamon alaudipes. 



In the neighbourhood of Metlaoui, to the south-west of Gafsa, 

 I also met with the Thick-billed Lark, but it was not at all abundant, 

 although evidently nesting in the vicinity, as I obtained a young biid 

 of the species apparently but a few weeks old. 



