ALAUDIN^E. 283 



Bill horny-brown, pale beneath ; irides dark-brown ; legs fleshy- 

 brown. 



Above the feathers are dark-brown, with fulvous margins ; 

 beneath fulvescent- white, deeper on the breast, and spotted or 

 streaked with dusky ; ear- coverts spotted and tipped dusky ; a 

 pale eye-streak ; the erectile feathers of the head moderately 

 elongated. Some specimens have a rufous tinge on the upper 

 tail-coverts, and also margining the large quills, more especially 

 the secondaries, while the coverts are edged with grey ; the tail 

 has the outermost feather almost wholly fulvescent white, and 

 the penultimate one has its outer web, and sometimes the tip of 

 the inner web of the same tint. 



The Indian Sky Lark occurs in suitable places throughout the 

 region. It is a permanent resident, breeding about the commence- 

 ment of May ; the nest, a shallow cup, composed of grass stems, 

 is placed in a depression, scratched by the birds under the shelter 

 of a clod of earth or tuft of grass. 



The eggs, four or five in number, are moderately elongated or 

 broadish ovals ; they vary much in coloring, but are mostly of two 

 types ; the first or commonest has a creamy- white ground, pro- 

 fusely speckled and freckled with excessively fine specks and spots 

 of dull purplish-grey and pale brownish-yellow ; in the second 

 type the color is white, and the markings are much darker in 

 shade. They measure 0'8 inches in length by 0'61 in breadth. 



GENUS, Galerida, Bole. 



Bill lengthened, slightly curved ; wings with the first primary, 

 moderately developed, the next four sub-equal, the second slightly 

 shorter ; toes and hind-claws less elongated than in Alauda ; an 

 erectile, lengthened and pointed crest on the^top the head. 



Galerida cristata, Lin. 



769. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 436 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Yol. IV, p. 2 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology 

 of Sind, p. 198. 



THE LARGE CRESTED LARK. 



Length, 7'25 to 7'5 ; wing, 4 to 4'25 ; tail, 2'5 to 2'75 ; tarsus, 1 ; 

 bill at front, 075. 



Bill yellowish ; irides dark-brown ; legs pale-brown. 



Pale earthy or sandy-brown, rufescent on the feathers of the 

 upper parts, with pale dusky mesial streaks ; the feathers of the 

 crest alone, with dark-brown centres ; wings somewhat rufescent ; 

 upper tail-coverts the same as are the lower surfaces of the wings 

 and tail ; outermost tail-feathers rufescent white, the next with 

 a border on its outer web, the four middle ones colored like the 

 back, and the rest of the tail blackish ; supercilia and lower parts 

 sullied white, with a few brown streaks on the breast. 



The Large Crested Lark is a common permanent resident 



