244 ALATTDIDJE. 



and minutely freckled with greyish-brown spots on a dirty-white 

 ground. At times the spots are more thickly distributed over the 

 obtuse end, frequently coalescing and forming a zone. 



"This little Lark breeds almost exclusively on open, fallow 

 plains, the slightest depression (such as a cow's foot-print when 

 the soil was moist) serving as the foundation for a nest, which is a 

 very loosely put together structure. 



" I have found immense numbers of their nests by riding slowly 

 over suitable ground with a line of coolies. The bird sits very 

 close, and flies up into the air from off the nest, i. e. t without first 

 running before taking wing, so that to mark the spot is an easy 

 task. 



" In February 1873 I flushed a bird, as above described, two or 

 three times without being able to detect the nest ; and nest there 

 was, because the female came back almost immediately every time 

 she was disturbed. Imagine my surprise at finding the nest in the 

 centre of a lump of cow-dung, which must have been quite fresh 

 when some cow or bullock ' put their foot in it.' 



" The hollow thus made served admirably for a nest, which 

 measured 2| inches in diameter by 1| inch in depth. It was com- 

 posed entirely of fine grasses, and as the foot-print had not gone 

 right through to the (/round, I was enabled to remove the lump of 

 dung without in any way hurting the nest. 



" White-ants had left their marks all over the dry dung, so that 

 detection was almost impossible ; it was altogether the most art- 

 fully concealed nest I have ever seen. 



" The male bird takes his turn on the eggs." 



Mr. E. C. Nunn says : " I myself found a nest of this species 

 amongst the stones in the bed of the Nerbudda, near Hoshungabad, 

 on the 6th April. It contained three eggs, and was a small nest, 

 composed of fine grass-roots and pieces of thread." 



From Sambhur Mr. E. M. Adam records : " The Black-bellied 

 Finch-Lark is very plentiful. It breeds about here from March 

 till August. The first nest which I obtained was found on the 

 22nd April, 1870. As I was riding along the lake-edge, I saw a 

 female with a feather in its bill, so I followed it up to its nest. 

 The nest was nearly finished, but contained no eggs. On the 26th 

 there were two eggs, and I think this is the normal number; but] 

 have a record of three being found in one nest. The nest was 

 built well out into the lake-bed on the top of a low retaining wall 

 of a salt-pan. It was a deepish cup-shape, in diameter about 3 

 inches, with the egg-cavity rather less than 2 inches across and 

 half an inch deep. It was chiefly composed of coarse pieces 

 of grass worked carelessly together, and here and there were 

 pieces of cloth and twine of the same material as the salt bags. 

 E-ound the nest was a belt, about 5 inches broad, composed of small 

 flakes of a saline incrustation about a tenth of an inch in thickness. 

 The pieces varied much in size, but the largest were about an inch 

 long by half an inch broad. 



" This nest was comparatively safe, but it is a puzzle to me how 



