PYRRHULAUDA. 353 



Male. Forehead and cheeks white, or fulvotrs white ; crown of the head 

 b- ack, scapulars, rump and upper tail coverts grey brown, with a slight tinge 

 of rufescent on the back, the feathers centred dusky ; cheeks whitish ; 

 primaries, secondaries and wing coverts brown, the feathers edged paler; 

 chin, throat, breast, sides of the neck and entire lower surface black ; the 

 flanks, sides of breast and abdomen greyish white. Bill pale brown ; legs 

 fleshy ; irides dark brown. 



Length. 475 to 5 inches; wing 3; tail 2 ; bill at front 0*37. The Female 

 is readily distinguishable by the absence of the black under surface and a 

 more rufescent tinge on the upper. 



ffab. Sind, Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, Oudh, Bengal, Kutch, Kattiawar, 

 Rajputana (Jeypore and Jodhpore), N. Guzerat, Concan, Deccan, Central and 

 South India. Affects open plains and ploughed lands. Breeds all over the 

 plains of India from January to August the first brood being hatched in 

 February and March and the second in July and August. Eggs have also 

 been taken in April and May. The nest is always on the ground, and placed 

 in some small depression on open fallow plains. The eggs are moderately 

 elongated ovals, having a greenish or greyish white ground, densely mottled, 

 speckled and spotted, or finely streaked with various shades of yellowish and 

 earthy brown. Hume adds that with the exception of the eggs of Alauda 

 ray /at, these are the smallest of all our Indian Lark's eggs, 0*65 o'8 

 x 0-5 0-62. 



897. Pyrrhulauda melanauchen, Cab., Mus. Hein. t. p. 124; 



Finsch, Trans. Zool. Socy. vii. p. 275, pi. xxvi. : Gray, Handlist Birds, No. 

 7837 ; Blf., East. Pers. ii. p. 246; Murray, Vert. Zool. Smd,p. 193 ; Hume, 

 Sir. F. vii. p. 64. Pyrrhulauda affinis, Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 185 ; Hume, 

 Sir. F. i. p. 212; id., vii. p. 66; Murray, Hdbk., Zool., &V., Sind, p. 186. 

 The BLACK-COLLARED LARK. 



"The male has a broad frontal band, cheeks, ear coverts and a band from 

 these round the base of the occiput and a large patch on either side of the 

 breast, white ; in the case of the two latter often tinged brownish." 



" The base of the lower mandible^ chin, throat, central portion of breast, 

 abdomen, vent, and lower tail coverts, axillaries and wing lining (except 

 lower primary greater coverts, which are pale grey brown like the lower sur- 

 face of the quills) intensely deep, at times somewhat sooty, at times almost 

 chocolate -brown ; the crown and upper part of occiput are deep brown, never 

 quite so intense as the lower parts, often considerably lighter, and more 

 purely brown ; the anterior portion of the side of the neck behind the lower 

 half of the ear coverts is always like the breast,, sometimes the deep colour 

 of these parts extends behind the whole of the ear coverts, and right round 

 the back of the neck, forming a collar immediately behind the white basal 

 occipital band already noticed, sometimes there is not the faintest trace of 



