ALAUDIN.E. 281 



THE LITTLE SAND LARK. 



Length, <?, 5'9 to 6, $ , 5*6 to 57 ; expanse, #, 10'4 to 11, ? , 

 10 to 10-5 ; wing, <?, 3'3 to 3'5, $ ,3'05 to 3'2 ; tail, # & ? , 2-2 ; 

 bill at front, <?, 0'35 to 0'3S, ? , 0*32 to 0'38. 



Bill greyish -slate, brownish on culmen and at tip, yellow at 

 base beneath ; irides pale-brown ; legs fleshy -brown, dusky at 

 joints. 



In the winter the whole upper surface is very pale-grey or 

 whity-brown, all the feathers narrowly centred with grey-brown, 

 so as to produce a striated appearance. There is in many speci- 

 mens a more or less perceptible, but still very faint, rufous tinge 

 on the back ; the wings are pale-brown, the outer webs of the 

 first primaries nearly entirely cream-color, the other primaries 

 narrowly tipped and margined white ; secondaries more broadly ; 

 tertiaries and coverts still more broadly margined with fulvous 

 or slightly greyish-white ; the central tail-feathers brown, some- 

 what conspicuously margined with brownish or fulvous-white ; 

 the exterior tail-feathers on either side wholly white, except a 

 dark-brown stripe down the inner margin of the inner web ; the 

 next feather with the whole exterior web pure white ; interior 

 web dark-brown ; other tail-feathers dark-brown, very narrowly 

 margined with dull white ; the lores and a stripe over and under 

 the eye white or rufescent- white ; a very narrow grey line through 

 the centre of the lores only noticeable in very good specimens or 

 in the fresh bird ; ear-coverts mingled grey-brown and fulvous- 

 white, and usually exhibiting a somewhat darker spot just behind 

 and below the posterior angle of the eye ; the wh ole lower parts 

 white, with, in some, a very faint rufescent tinge on the breast, 

 sides, and flanks, and with numerous narrow or linear darkish- 

 brown spots on the breast, very strongly marked, conspicuous in 

 some specimens, reduced almost to speckles in other birds ; the 

 flanks and sides are faintly tinged with brown, or in some pale 

 rufescent. 



The Little Sand Lark is a permanent resident in Sind. It does 

 not occur elsewhere within our limits. 



GENUS, Spizalauda, Blyth. 



Bill as in Alauda, i.e., with the nostrils protected by bristles, 

 but thicker and Mirafra-like in its form ; wings long, with the 

 first quill minute, the next four about equal and longest, as in 

 the true Larks ; tertiaries lengthened ; hind-toe and claw mode- 

 rately developed ; claws longer than in Mirafra ; coronal feathers 

 lengthened, and forming a pointed crest. 



Spizalauda deva, Sykes. 



765. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 432 ; Butler, Deccan ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 418 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central 

 India; Ibis, 1885, p. 130. 



