THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 361 



165. White-winged Lark [WEISSFLUGELIGE LERCHE]. 



ALAUDA LEUCOPTERA, Pallas. 1 

 Heligoland ish : Witt-jiikked Lortsk = White-winged Lark. 



Alauda leucoptera. Pallas, Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., i. 518. 

 White-winged Lark. Dresser, iv. 373. 



For many years it was my special desire to acquire one of these 

 birds among the other species from eastern Asia which I wished to 

 obtain on this island. During a week's visit which Dresser paid 

 me in July 1881, I happened to give expression to this wish, and 

 he at once expressed his readiness to send me a skin. I however 

 refused his friendly offer, remarking that a skin would be of no use 

 to me, as the birds would have to come to me alive ; and lupus in 

 fabula one of them was actually already on its way hither ; for a 

 week later, on the 2nd of August, a freshly-shot beautiful old male, 

 with ferruginous crown, and the outer surface of the wings of the 

 same colour, was brought to me. The gunner who shot it, not 

 being an ornithologist, took it for a Snow Bunting, on account of 

 its pure white secondaries. That I might, however, have nothing 

 further to wish for in regard to this species, Aeuckens, a few years 

 later, brought me a freshly-killed, beautiful old female, shot on the 

 2nd of June 1886. 



The breeding home of this large, thick-billed Lark extends from 

 the Steppes of the Lower Volga, through the Khirgiz Steppes, to 

 the Jenesei. 



Pallas first met with it very numerously distributed along the 

 Irtish, as far as the Altai. It has been observed as an exceptional 

 occurrence in Poland and Galicia, and has been shot twice in 

 Belgium, once in England, and once in Italy. 



166. Black Lark [MOHRENLERCHE]. 

 ALAUDA TATARICA, Pallas. 2 



Alauda tatarica. Naumann, xiii. ; Blasius, Nachtrage, 158. 



Black Lark. Dresser, iv. 377. 



Alouette nigre. Teinminck, Mamiel, i. 275, iii. 207. 



This peculiar Lark, the male of which in summer has its 

 plumage of a uniform black, is represented in my collection by a 

 female, shot here by Glaus Aeuckens on the 27th April 1874. 



Although this female example has throughout the characteristic 



Mdanocorypha sibirica (Gmel.). 2 MelanocorypUa ydtoniensis (Forst.). 



i 



