ALJEMON. 219 



Family ALAUDID^E. 



Alsemon desertorum (Stanley). The Desert-LarTc. 



Certhilauda desertorum (Stanley}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 438 ; Hume, 

 Cat. no. 770. 



Regarding the breeding of the Desert-Lark, Lieut. J. C. Francis, 

 writing from Karachi, says : " I discovered a nest of this bird 

 yesterday (li~ May), but imfortunately the young, three in num- 

 ber, were just hatched. I was looking for the eggs of the Small 

 Terns, when I saw a Tern swoop down at another bird on the 

 ground. I saw that the bird on the ground was a Desert-Lark, 

 and on going closer I saw that it had a worm or small insect in its 

 bill. 1 watched it, and saw it run up a mound of sand and stop 

 there for a short time. On going up to this, I found the nest. 

 The mound was just on the edge of a strip of bare sand ; it was 

 about 2 feet in circumference at the top, and 18 inches high, and 

 roundish in shape. The nest was large, placed in the sand, from 

 outside twig to outside about a foot across. It was composed of, 

 first, a layer of small branches, and then a deep, circular cup, some- 

 what like an English Thrush's nest. The cup was composed of 

 sand stuck together with bits of grass and two pieces of rag and 

 lined with grass. Nest very conspicuous. 



"1 know the Desert-Lark perfectly, and have two specimens 

 which I shot and skinned myself, so I did not shoot the birds. The 

 old bird was very daring, running round and round my legs at a 

 distance of less than five yards with outspread wings and open 

 beak, but uttering no sound. I am certain of the bird the shape 

 of the beak, the spotted breast, the white on the wings, and its 

 running powers and unwillingness to fly render it unmistakable. 

 I watched a small colony of these birds, about six, a short time 

 back, and found them constantly flying up perpendicularly to about 

 15 or 20 feet, and uttering a short, melodious, whistling song, the 

 notes of which have quite gone out of my recollection." 



Mr. Scrope Doig writes : " On the 3rd June I found a nest and 

 young of this species on a large open plain on the borders between 

 the Narra and Hydrabad districts. Since then I have to thank 

 my friend Mr. Flinch for an egg of this bird taken at Jask. The 

 nest I found was similar to those of Pyrrhulauda grisea, but larger. 

 The egg in my collection is in markings very similar to eggs of 

 P. melanauchen, the markings being bolder and the egg about twice 

 the size." 



The eggs are moderately elongated ovals, slightly compressed 

 towards one end, with a fine, compact, but scarcely appreciably 

 glossy shell ; the ground-colour is greyish white, in some thickly, 

 in some thinly, freckled, speckled, or in some blotched, with pale 

 yellowish brown. The markings have a tendency to form an irre- 



