348 ALAUDID^E. 



Hab Throughout India to Assam ; common in Sind, affecting the woody 

 districts, especially in the vicinity of the Indus. It is also common in Kutch, 

 Kattiawar, Rajputana generally, N. Guzerat, Deccan, Concan, Southern and 

 Central India, Oudh and Lower Bengal, extending to the Himalayas. Breeds 

 from May to September, making a rather loose purse-shaped structure of grass, 

 and lined with the fine glossy filaments of Calotropis procera. Eggs, like those 

 of the Munia, white, but smaller, and more elongate. 



889. Estrilda formosa (Lath:), Jerd., B. Ind. ii. p. 361, No. 705 ; 



Hume, Sir. F. iii. p. 496 ; viii. p. 492. THE GREEN WAX-BILL. 



Above light olive green; quills and tail dusky, the former edged with 

 green; beneath very pale yellow, somewhat darker on the lower belly and 

 under tail coverts, and with broad transverse dashes of dusky on the flanks 

 and sides of the abdomen. Bill waxy red; feet plumbeous brown; irides 

 p ale brown. (Jerd.) 



Length. 3*8 to 4 inches; wing 1*75 ; tail 1*3. 



Hab. Northern and Central India, also the Central Provinces. Jerdon 

 records it from Mhow, Saugor, the jungles of Nagpore and the Vindhian range 

 of hills. 



Family, ALAUDID^:. 



Bill typically longer and more slender than in most Fringillida ; short and 

 thick in many ; wings broad ; tertiaries elongated, pointed ; hind toe and claw 

 long, the latter curved ; plumage brown, more or less striated, (jferd.) 



Gen. Mirafra. Horsf. 



Bill thick, much compressed, the culmen curved and convex, the tip of the 

 upper mandible wide above and inflexed ; wings short, rounded ; primaries 

 scarcely longer than the secondaries and tertials ; ist quills short, half the 

 length of the second, which is shorter than the third ; tail short, even, 



890. Mirafra Assamica, McChil., P. z. s. 1839, p. 162 ; Jerd., 



B. Ind. ii. p. 416. No. 754; Hume, Nesfs and Eggs Ind. B. ii. p. 473; 

 Ball, Sir. F. ii. p. 421 ; Blyth, B. Burm. p. 95 ; Anderson, Yunnan Exped. 

 p. 606; Cripps, Sir. F. vii. p. 294; Hume, Str. F. viii. p. 108 ; Oates, B. 

 British Burmah i. p. 375. The BENGAL BUSH LARK. 



Entire upper surface of the body ashy brown, tinged with olive, each feather 

 with mesial dusky brown streaks, less conspicuous on the rump and upper 

 tail coverts ; wing coverts brown, edged with pale rufous white ; quills brown t 

 the outer webs of the primaries deep ferruginous, the second primary equal 

 to the sixth, the edges of the secondaries slightly paler ferruginous, and the, 

 tertiaries edged on both webs with pale rufous white ; inner webs of quills 

 ferruginous ; lores, ear coverts and cheeks mixed with brown and pale fulvous ; 

 a pale fulvous superciliary streak ; tail brown, edged with fulvous ; chin and 



