WHITE-WINGED LARK. 643 



Mr. Rowley exhibited this specimen*, stating that it was a 

 hen bird, and when caught was associating with a flock of 

 about two dozen Snow-Buntings (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, 

 pp. 52, 53). The specimen is now in Mr. Monk's collection 

 and up to the present time is the only one known to have 

 occurred in Britain. 



This fine Lark was originally described by Pallas in 1773 

 (Reise u. s. w. ii. p. 708) as a variety of the Alauda 

 calandra of Linnaeus, which it somewhat resembles, and 

 fifteen years later first received a specific denomination 

 from J. F. Gmelin. Subsequently Pallas, in his great work 

 on the Zoology of the Russian Empire, renamed it A. 

 leucoptera and said that it was especially common in the 

 Desert of Baraba from the river Om to the Altai and was 

 most abundant along the course of the Irtish where he first 

 discovered it. In 1773 he found it on the steppes of the 

 river Jaik or Ural, and it appeared to him to visit the whole 

 of Great Tartary. Later observers state that it does not 

 occur, to the eastward of the Jenisei and its affluents, and 

 therefore its range in that direction is not very great. It is 

 found throughout the Kirgis Steppes and Mr. Dresser has 

 a specimen from Kokand, while westward it inhabits the 

 country between the Jaik and the Volga as high as Oren- 

 burg and Saratov. In South Russia generally, though 

 occurring in the Government of Ekaterinoslav, it is said by 

 the elder Nordmann to be very rare, and he never saw it 

 alive. According to Herr E. J. von Homeyer (Journ. fiir 

 Orn. 1854, p. 364), Herr Radde sent a specimen from Jeni- 

 Sala. It was obtained by Capt. Blakiston in the Crimea, 

 in January 1856, and it appears occasionally in hard win- 

 ters on the Bosphorus, whence Mr. Robson has sent many 

 specimens, but there is na evidence of its occurrence further to 



* The Editor had the opportunity of previously seeing this specimen, for on 

 the morning of New-Year's day, 1870, just after having read a notice in the 

 'Zoologist' (s.s. p. 1984) in which it was designated a young Snow-Finch 

 (Montifringilla nivalis), he accompanied Mr. Rowley to Mr. Swaysland's shop, 

 and had the pleasure of confirming the determination of his friend, who on the 

 same day sent to the conductor of that journal a correction of the error which 

 was eventually printed (torn. cit. p. 2066). 



