ROCK LARK. 537 



dusky ; near seven eighths of an inch long from 

 the apex to the corner of the mouth : irides hazel: 

 the upper part of the head, back of the neck, and 

 tail-coverts, are of a dark brown : the back and 

 scapulars of the same colour, obscurely marked 

 with dusky strokes ; above the eyes, and beneath 

 the ear, is a lightish coloured stroke : the throat 

 whitish; the breast and belly yellowish white, 

 the former blotched with large dusky spots ; the 

 sides marked with strokes of the same: under tail- 

 coverts light brown ; the two middle feathers of 

 the tail dark brown, the others dusky ; the outer 

 one of a dirty yellowish white on the interior web 

 and the point of the exterior ; in the second 

 feather the light colour is just visible at the end : 

 the quill-feathers and wing-coverts are dusky, 

 slightly edged with light brown : legs and toes 

 dusky : claws black : hind claw four tenths of an 

 inch long, and somewhat crooked. The female 

 resembles the male. The young birds are not 

 maturely feathered till after the winter of their 

 first year ; till then their upper parts have a tinge 

 of olivaceous ash-colour; beneath the lighter parts 

 are yellowish, and the coverts of the wings more 

 deeply margined with light brown : the base of 

 the under mandible and legs less dusky." 



Colonel Montagu ascertained this to be an in- 

 habitant of Britain in the year 1791, during the 

 course of a journey in South Wales, where he ob- 

 served it in great abundance, and found several 

 nests with eggs, proving beyond a doubt that it 

 was not an accidental visitor, but that it breeds in 



