THE CALANDRA LARK. 



151 



Soft parts. — Bill yellow, tip blackish 

 iris dark brown. 



legs and feet black ; 



Characters. — No subspecies. Black colour of male, and large 

 size, thick bill and absence of white feathers in tail and wing, and 

 blackish-brown axillaries and under-wing of female distinguish 

 it from other Larks. 



Breeding-harits. — Nests on ground near salt-marshes. Nest. — In 

 hollow on ground, lined with dead grasses. Eggs. — 4 rarely 5, much 

 hke Calandra Lark's, but perhaps less boldly marked ; ground 

 grejrish-white, marbled and blotched with ochreous brown and 

 ashy, chiefly towards big end. Average of 23 eggs, 25. 1 X 18.12 mm. 

 Breeding -season. — First half Ma3^ hicuhation. — Period, etc., not 

 precisely known. 



Food. — Mainly seeds. 



Distribution. — England. — Small party on borders of Sussex and 

 Kent, January, 1907, following being shot : male, near Pevonsey 

 (Sussex) Jan. 29 ; female, near Lydd (Kent) Jan. 31 ; male, near 

 Lydd, Feb. 18 ; male. Rye (Sussex) Feb. 16 {ut supra). Female, 

 Westfield (Sussex) Jan. 30, 1915 and another Feb. 1, also a male seen 

 Hollington, St. Leonards, early in Jan. (T. Parkin, Brit. B., ix, p. 68). 



Distribution. — Abroad. — From west Siberia and Turkestan to 

 the Lower Volga. In mnter more or less vagrant, and has appeared 

 in the Talysh plains, Heligoland, Galizia, Belgium, and Italy. 



calandra (L.). — THE 



MELANOCORYPHA CALANDRA 



6o. Melanocorypha calandra 



CALANDRA LARK. 



AiiAUDA Calandra Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. xii, i, p. 288 (1766 — 



" Habitat circa Pyrenaeos.") 



Melanocorypha c. calandra, J. B. Nichols, Brit. B., x, p. 254. 



Description. — Adult ^^- 



■^^^^ 



male and female. 

 Winter. — Crown, hind- 

 neck, mantle, scapulars, 

 back and upper tail- 

 coverts brown t© grey- 

 ish brown, each feather 

 mesially streaked black- 

 brown very broadly on 

 mantle, less broadly on 

 croAvn, and narrowly 

 on hind-neck ; feathers 



of centre of mantle Calandra Lark (Melanocorypha c. calandra). 



with rather conspicuous whitish-brown edges, most feathers 

 of upper-parts in very fresh plumage with very narrow 



