ALAUDIN.E. 279 



equal ; tertiaries elongated ; feet small, with shortish toes, and 

 moderately short, but straight hind-claw. 



Calandrella brachydactyla, Leisl. 



761. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 426 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 500 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 

 Vol. IX, p. 418 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 198; 

 Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 130. 



THE SOCIAL LAKK. 



Length, 6'25 ; wing, 4 ; tail, 2'25 ; tarsus, 0'8. 



Bill whitish-horny, dusky on culmen ; irides dark-brown ; legs 

 brownish. 



Upper parts pale rufescent-sandy, streaked with dusky, a 

 stripe over the eye, and the whole under parts fulvous-white, 

 tinged with earthy-brown on the breast, which is spotless in 

 some, in a few slightly spotted ; wings dusky-brown, with ful- 

 vous edgings, broader and deeper colored on the tertiaries, and 

 on the tips of the coverts, and with a whitish edge to the first 

 developed primary ; tail dusky, the penultimate feather having 

 the outer web wholly white to near the base, and also some of 

 the inner web. In old or worn plumage the dusky tinge pre- 

 vails on the back ; the breast has some narrow dusky streaks, 

 and a patch of the same appears on each side of the lower part 

 of the foreneck ; this is also slightly observable in newly-moulted 

 specimens. 



The Social Lark is excessively common during the cold 

 weather, in every portion of the region. 



GENUS, Melanocorypha, Boie. 



Bill thick and convex ; tertiaries not elongated ; hind-claw 

 moderate, straight. 



Melanocorypha bimaculata, Menet. 



76Iter. Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 195. 



Length, 7 to 8 ; expanse, 13 to 15'25 ; wing, 4'2 to 4*8 ; tail, 

 212 to 2-4 ; tarsus, 1 ; bill at front, 0'6 to 07 ; bill at gape, 



q-7 to 0-9. 



Bill horny-brown, beneath yellowish ; irides brown ; legs yel- 

 lowish-fleshy. 



" Adult male in summer plumage. Above fulvous-brown, the 

 centres of the plumes much darker-brown, giving a somewhat 

 mottled appearance, all the feathers being edged with fulvous, 

 especially on the hinder part of the neck and the centre of the 

 back; wing-coverts colored like the back, but a little more 

 rufous, plainly edged with fulvous, less distinct on the greater- 

 coverts ; quills brown with a slight shade of ash-grey on the 

 outer webs ; all the feathers more or less narrowly-edged with 

 fulvous, but none of the feathers tipped white ; tail dark-brown, 



