202 ALAUDID^B CALENDULA 



7/t0^/t*/i*o-^> ^h^J^j^ 



112. Calendula crassirostris. Thick-billed Lark. 



L'Alouette a gros bee, Levaillant, Ois. d'Afr. pi. 193 (1805). 



Alauda crassirostris, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet, i, p. 373 (1816) ; Layard's B. 



8. Afr. p. 208 (1867) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1875, p. 81. 

 Calendula crassirostris, Gurney in Andersson's B. Damara Land, p. 



195 (1872) ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 636 ; id. ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. 



p. 513 (1884) ; id. Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 639 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, 



p. 17 (1896). 



" Dubbelde Leeuwick " of the Dutch. 



Description. Adult male in summer. Above, dark brown, the 

 feathers edged with fulvous, the lower back and rump lighter ; 

 crown light brown streaked with brown ; hind neck rather more 

 fulvous streaked with dark brown ; wing-coverts dark brown edged 

 with ash-colour ; quills brown edged and tipped with white ; upper 

 tail-coverts ash-brown streaked with dark brown ; tail-feathers dark 

 brown edged with grey, the two outer margined and tipped with 

 dull white ; a streak on each side of the crown, feathers above and 

 below eye and lores reddish white ; cheeks reddish-white spotted 

 with brown; ear-coverts brown streaked with buff; under surface 

 yellowish-white, the throat spotted, the lower breast and sides 

 narrowly striped with blackish ; flanks brown streaked with dark 

 brown ; under wing-coverts pale brown margined with white. 



Iris brown ; upper mandible horn-coloured ; the lower paler ; 

 legs and feet pale brown. 



Length 6'80 ; wing 4-00 ; tail 2-80 ; tarsus 1-00 ; culmen 0-75. 



Adult male in winter. Duller than in summer ; most of the 

 feathers with grey edges ; below yellowish, the breast less spotted 

 and with paler brown. 



Adult female. Eesembles the male in colour but is smaller. 



Young. Of a more uniform brown ; the feathers of the upper 

 parts edged with white. 



' Distribution. Chiefly in the western districts of South Africa : 

 in Cape Colony very generally distributed from Cape Town over the 

 northern and western parts of the Colony, ranging into the Orange 

 Free State and throughout Great Namaqua into Damara Land. 

 Common on the Cape Flats. 



Habits. The Thick-billed Lark is usually to be met with on 

 level or gently undulating ground and on sandy soil with a scanty 

 growth of bushes, occasionally it may be seen on ploughed land. 

 In Damara Land, according to Andersson, " it frequents localities 





