262 BRITISH BIRDS. 



have been obtained at different times in Cornwall. Two were procured 

 near Penzance, in September 1846 (Rodd, ' Zoologist/ 1846, p. 1497), and 

 another was obtained in the same neighbourhood on the 24th of October, 

 1850 (Rodd, ' Zoologist/ 1851, p. 3033). The fourth was captured near 

 Falmouth in the latter part of 1865, and was killed by Mr. Gill of that 

 town (Biillmore, 'Cornish Fauna/ p. 20) ; and on the 12th of June, 1880, 

 the fifth example was shot in a garden at Helston, in Cornwall (Hart, 

 1 Zoologist/ 1880, p. 302). This bird is also said to have occurred near 

 Blackheath (Hutchinson, ' Zoologist/ 1868, p. 1167), at Macclesfield 

 (Painter, 'Nature/ 1873, ix. p. 132), and on the Isle of Wight (Hadfield, 

 'Zoologist/ 1877, p. 450). 



The examples of this species which have been obtained in this country 

 have chiefly occurred in autumn, and have probably been migrants from 

 South Sweden or Denmark via Heligoland ; but an alleged instance of 

 the Crested Lark having bred near Cambridge in 1881 is recorded (Harting, 

 ' Zoologist/ 1883, p. 178). This bird does not appear to have occurred in 

 Scotland. 



The Crested Lark is a common though local resident in Central and 

 Southern Europe ; it does not occur in Norway, and is very rare in South 

 Sweden, but it occasionally strays as far north as Upsala, in lat. 60. In 

 Russia it has occurred at St. Petersburg (lat. 60) in the west, and breeds 

 up to lat. 54 in the east. It has not occurred in Siberia, but is a resident 

 iu Palestine, Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, 

 and North-west India. Prjevalsky records it from South-east Mongolia, 

 and it is a resident in North China, and probably also in Tibet. It is a 

 resident in Europe south of the Baltic, and in North Africa as far south 

 as Abyssinia. In winter its numbers are decreased in the northern and 

 increased in the southern portions of its range. 



The Crested Lark varies considerably both in size, colour, and dimensions 

 of bill ; but the variations appear to be purely protective, and are referable 

 to the nature of the country on which the birds are found rather than 

 to differences of geographical distribution. The extreme desert form, 

 A. cristata var. isabellina, has hitherto only been recorded from the desert 

 regions of North Africa. A slightly less rufous, but still very sandy- 

 coloured form, A. cristata var. magna, is found in Turkestan, Scinde, 

 Algeria, and elsewhere on semi-desert ground. In Algeria the bill of this 

 form is occasionally more or less elongated, constituting a race worthy of 

 recognition as A. cristata var. macrorhyncha. The typical form, which is 

 greyer, is principally found in Europe ; but intermediate forms between it 

 and the semi-desert form occur in India. Chinese examples, A. cristata 

 var. leautungensis, are generally reddish brown, but some are scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from the semi-desert form. According to Heuglin, all these 

 varieties of coloration are found at different elevations in Abyssinia. 



