536 



ROCK LARK. 

 (Alauda obscura.) 



AL. olivaceo-fusca nigricante varia subtusjlavicans, lateribus colli 

 pectoreque maculis fusee see ntibus, rectrice extima dimidiato, 

 secunda apice albo-cinerascente. 



Olive-brown Lark, varied with dusky, beneath yellowish, with 

 the sides of the neck and breast with brownish spots, half the 

 outer tail-feathers, and the tip of the second, of an ashy-white. 



Alauda obscura. Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 4Q4. 7. 



Alauda Petrosus. Mont, in Lin. Trans. 4. p. 41. pi. 2. egg. 



Dusky Lark. Lewin. Brit. Birds. 3. pi. 94. Lath. Syn. Sup. 

 II. 22;. 2. 



Sea Lark. Wale. Syn. pi. 193. 



Tit Lark. Pen. Brit. Zool.folio.pl. P. l. ? var. 



Rock Lark. Mont. Orn. Diet. 1. 



MR. LEWIN appears to be the person that first 

 ascertained this to be a distinct species, although 

 perhaps the author of British Zoology was the 

 first that mentioned it ; for in the folio edition of 

 that work he has given a figure of a bird shot on 

 the rocks of Carmarthenshire, which he calls a 

 variety of the Tit-lark, and which appears to 

 agree tolerably well with the present species : 

 Colonel Montagu has well described it in the Lin- 

 nean Transactions, and has appended to his de- 

 scription an account of its habits ; the former I 

 shall extract verbatim, and give the substance of 

 the latter. 



" The bird weighs about seven drams : the 

 length six inches and three quarters : the beak is 



