80 



FOEEIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



of gallinaceous birds. Their food consists of spiders, 

 centipedes, all kinds of email insects with their larvae 

 and pupae, and seeds of weeds or grain. From the 

 Pipits, which they much resemble in colouring, and to 

 which they are undoubtedly nearly related, the Larks 

 can be at once distinguished by the scaling at the back, 

 as well as the front, of the foot. 



Very few species of Larks are imported as cage-birds, 

 probably because of their modest colouring ; bait such as 

 do come to hand are well worth keeping, though, unfor- 

 tunately, they are never cheap. Dr. Russ only records 

 ten imported species, several of which are not exclu- 

 sively foreign 'birds ; whilst the Zoological Gardens of 

 London, including British and European species, has 

 only kept seventeen, and one of these A. gulguia (the 

 Indian Skylark) is only doubtfully distinct from our 

 British bird. Of the few imported species, the Tien- 

 tsin and the Calandra Larks are undoubtedly most often 

 seen in the market, and are by far the most attractive. 

 With a good insectivorous mixture, a teaspoonful daily 

 of canaryseed, a little green food, a few living insects 

 or their grubs, and an occasional spider, Larks are easily 

 kept in health, provided that a fairly large cage or a 

 small aviary is made use of in which to confine them. 

 Only one male should 'be kept in the enclosure, as Larks 

 are naturally pugnacious towards their own kind. 

 They are, as a rule, confiding and long-lived, and the 

 songs of many of them are especially pleasing. 



In Russ' " Fremdlandisehen Stubenvogel," descrip- 

 tions are given of nearly all the Larks known to him, 

 whether imported as cage-birds or not ; in some cases 

 only a single skin of the species was known to him as 

 existing in a museum. I see no object in thus unneces- 

 sarily extending the size of a book for the use of 

 aviculturists. Of course, it caters for future generations 

 which may (or may not) possess living examples of 

 some of these species, but a later edition fov a writer 

 of a later generation would pro'baihly answer the purpose 

 better. 



CLOT-BEY LARK (RhampUocorys clot-bey). 



Above sandy buff, greyer on the nape ; primaries dark 

 brown, especially at the lips ; secondaries blackish with 

 white tips ; central tail-feathers reddish-buff, brown at 

 tips ; remaining tail-feathers white with broad, black- 

 brown tips decreasing outwardly ; crown indistinctly 

 streaked with grey ; lores and ill-defined eyebrow stripe 

 blackish ; ear-coverts and sides of neck black, the former 

 with a white central spot ; chin, middle of throat, and 

 breast white, the latter densely spotted with 'black, 

 which unites behind into a broad central stripe on the 

 upper abdomen ; lower abdomen and under tail-coverts 

 white ; sides and flanks vinous buff ; bill bluish ; feet 

 white ; irides dark brown. Female smaller, paler, and 

 more uniformly 'huffish, the under surface less Hack. 

 Hab., Deserts of Lybia and Algeria. 



J. I. <S. Whitaker (" Birds of Tunisia," Vol. I., 

 pp. 289-291) says : " Peculiar in its appearance, this 

 Lark is equally so in some of its habits, and differs not 

 a little from most other Larks. As a rule it frequents 

 rocky hillocks and broken, undulating country covered 

 with a scanty scrub vegetation, this being often so 

 scanty as hardly to afford shelter to the bird. In such 

 localities the species is to be found generally in limited 

 numbers, though occasionally fairly plentifully. In 

 springtime, when I have met with the species, it has 

 been in pairs, but during the autumn and winter it 

 appears to congregate together, and is then to 'be found 

 in small flocks. On the few occasions when it has been 

 my good fortune to encounter the bird, I have found it 

 far from shv, and instead of flying off on my approach it 

 has allowed me to walk clo.e up to it before taking to 



flight. On one particular occasion I remember observ- 

 ing one of these birds, which had evidently seen me 

 from, a distance coming towards it, crouch down as 

 closely as it could to the 'bare ground, remaining there 

 motionless, with its head turned towards me, watching. 

 me as I slowly walked up to it, and it was only on my 

 approaching within a yard of the spot where it was that 

 it finally took to its wings. The species evidently does^ 

 not readily take to flight, but seeks to escape detection 

 by concealment and. according to some observers, by 

 running off on the approach of danger, like gome other 

 Larks, such as Chersophilus dupontl and Alcemon 

 iilaudipes. When the present species does use its wings 

 it rarely takes a long flight, but skims over the surface 

 of the ground for a short distance, and then settles 

 down again. Its flight, however, is by no means feeble, 

 but the contrary, and, should a strong wind happen to be 

 blowing, it is, indeed, rather swift and somewhat darting,. 

 Though not shy, this Lark seems to be generally on the 

 alert, and I have seen it perching on a low rock or stone 

 spying the country round it, after the manner of a Chat. 



" The food of the species consists of small seeds and 

 insects. In the crop of one of these birds I found a 

 locust almost entire, and in that of another a good- 

 sized beetle, minute seeds being also present in 'both. 

 cases. 



" I have never heard this Lark's note, but, according 

 to Dr. Koenig, the bird emits a Lark-like twitter when. 

 on the wing, though he never heard it utter any real 

 eong. To the same author we are indebted for some 

 interesting notes regarding the breeding of this species,. 

 together with an excellent plate of a brooding female, 

 with its nest and eggs (" Journal fur Ornitho- 

 logie," 1895, p. 263. pi. XIV.). Judging from. 

 a specimen of a young bird in my collection 

 from South Tunisia, the species must commence 

 nesting operations early in the year, probably 

 the end of February or beginning of March. 

 but the breeding season is no doubt continued through- 

 out March and April, and perhaps into May. The nest, 

 which seems always to be placed in a depression in the 

 ground, hidden by a tussock of Haifa-grass or some- 

 other desert plant, and surrounded by small stones, is 

 large and well-built, being composed of grasses and 

 plant stems, with a lining of a finer material. The eggs. 

 the complement of which is apparently three, are? 

 coloured with a delicate apricot tinge, covered all over 

 with rust-red and rose-violet markings. Measurements 

 a>bout 24 x 18 mm. 



" The shell of the eggs is very fine and transparent, 

 and has a dull gloss." 



Although Russ gives an account of the species, he' 

 seems not to have been aware that it had been imported. 

 Probably when his first volume appeared it had not 

 been, since it was ten years later in 1889 that five 

 examples were purchased by the London Zoological 

 Society and exhibited in their Gardens at Regent's Park. 



ALGERIAN SHORE-LARK (Otocorys 



Upper surface generally sandy huffish, slightly vina- 

 oeous, somewhat more rufescent on upper wing-coverts: 

 and secondaries ; inner webs of primaries blackish- 

 brown, outer webs, excepting that of the outermost 

 feather, which is white, rufescent ; central tail-feathers 

 rufescent, the others black, the outermost pair with 

 white outer webs ; forehead and a bread eyebrow-stripe- 

 white ; lateral recurved frontal ear-like tufts black : 

 crown just behind the tufts white ; lores and front of 

 ear -coverts black ; back of ear-coverts, chin, upper 

 throat, and sides of neck white ; a broad 'black crescentic- 

 gorget on lower throat ; rest of under surface white, 

 washed with sandy buff on sides and flanks ; bill bluish- 



