AMMOMANES. 241 



of Hue grass or roots, sometimes sparsely lined with softer materials, 

 placed in some slight natural depression, or a tiny hollow scratched 

 by the birds themselves, under the shelter of some clod or large 

 stone, or at the foot of a tuft of grass or dwarf bush. 



Pour is the full complement of eggs. 1 have never found more, 

 and _/*?/ contra have repeatedly found three more or less incubated. 



Prom Kaipoor Mr. F. E. Blewitt writes : " This Rufous-tailed 

 Lark pairs in February and breeds in March and April, though I 

 had hard-set eggs brought to me in the beginning of May. It 

 makes its nest on the ground, generally in ploughed lands, often 

 under the cover of a clod of earth. The nest is simply a moderate 

 sized circular hollow in the earth, say about half an inch or so 

 deep, without the 4 grass and other materials ' referred to by 

 Dr. Jerdon ; at least this was the case in the score and odd nests 

 discovered by me and my men. Four is the maximum number of 

 eggs. Its favourite haunts are open plains, stubbles, and ploughed 

 fields ; but I never witnessed it, and I have well observed the 

 bird's habits, ascend suddenly in the air by a few interrupted 

 shakes of its wings, uttering at the same time a pleasant, loud, 

 whistling note, something like too-wJiee (the note is altogether 

 different), ' and then descend with a sudden fall.' On the contrary, 

 it is not ' very rarely,' but very often, in the breeding-season, that 

 it perches on a low bush or twigs, and utters the meanwhile its 

 short, tuirliwj, melodious note." 



Dr. Jerdon says : " It makes its nest on the ground of grass 

 and other light material, generally under the shelter of a clod of 

 earth or tuft of grass, laying three or four eggs, dirty greenish 

 white, with numerous small brown spots. It breeds about Jaulnah 

 in February and March. Tickell found it breeding in Central 

 India in June." 



Mr. E. C. Xuun remarks : " I found the nest at Hoshungabad 

 on the 28th April, 1868. It was placed in a cavity of the river- 

 bank, and was composed of fine roots of grass, lined with wool and 

 a few feathers. It measured 3*5 inches in diameter internally, and 

 contained three fresh eggs." 



Colonel Tickell's account is : " Nest flat, shallow, circular, 

 4 inches in diameter, placed in meadows in long grass, which it 

 entwines over the nest, leaving only a small passage open. Eggs 

 four, lengthened, blunted, 0*87 by 0*62, dirty greenish white, 

 thickly sprinkled with pale and dark brown confluent spots. Lays 

 in June." 



Colonel Butler writes : " Belgaum, 18th April, 1880, 3 fresh 

 eggs. The nest was a simple cup of dry grass placed in a hollow 

 under a ledge of earth or an open maidan, from which the 

 surrounding grass had been burnt away. 20th April, another nest 

 exactly similar, containing a single young bird ready to leave the 

 nest. 4th May, another nest well lined with rat's fur and goat- 

 hair, and placed under a good- sized stone ; contents 3 incubated 



[essrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, 

 VOL. ii. 16 



