WHITE-WINGED LARK. 2/9 



ALAUDA SIBIRICA. 

 WHITE-WINGED LARK. 



(PLATE 15.) 



Alauda calandra affinis, Pall. Reise Russ. Reichs, ii. p. 708 (1773). 



Alauda sibirica, Gmel. Si/st. Nat. i. p. 799 (1788) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Schlegel, (Degland $ Gerbe), (Danford # Harme-Browii), Hurting, (Dresser), 



(Newton), &c. 



Alauda calandra, Linn., var. /3, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 497 (1790). 

 Alauda leucoptera, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. i. p. 518, pi. xxxiii. fig. 2 (1826). 

 Phileremos sibirica (Gmel.)', Keys. u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. pp. xxxvii, 153 (1840). 

 Melanocorypha leucoptera (Pall.), Bonap. Consp. i. p. 243 (1850). 

 Calandrella sibirica (Gmel.), Brandt, Jide Bonap. Consp. i. p. 243 (1850). 

 Calandrella leucoptera (Pall), Dubois, Ois. Belg. pi. 102 B (185S). 

 Pallasia leucoptera (Pall.), Homeyer, Journ. Orn. 1873, p. 190. 



The White-winged Lark has not the slightest claim to be considered a 

 British bird ; but, like many other Siberian species, it is included in the 

 British list because it has once been obtained in this country. On the 22nd 

 of November, 1869, a female White- winged Lark was caught near Brighton 

 out of a flock of about two dozen Snow-Buntings, and was brought alive, 

 together with some of the latter, to Mr. Swaysland, from whom it passed 

 into the collection of Mr. Monk, of Lewes. It is probable that others 

 may be discovered ; for my friend Mr. Gatke writes to me that he ob- 

 tained an example on the island of Heligoland on the 2nd of August, 

 1881. The only other records of the occurrences of this species in 

 Western Europe* are in Belgium and the Alps. An example was caught 

 in October 1855 near Liege, and a second at Mechelen, a small village 

 north of Liege, in October 1856 (Dubois, Journ. Orn. 1856, p. 505), 

 whilst a third specimen was shot near Trento, in the Italian Tyrol, 

 about the middle of November 1869 (Giglioli, 'Ibis/ 1881, p. 200). In 

 Poland and Galicia it is only an accidental visitor. It is said by Count 

 Casimir Wodzicki to have been observed frequently in Poland; and he 

 records three examples which were seen in East Galicia, of which one 

 was shot. 



The White-winged Lark breeds on the steppes and is a common resident 

 in the extreme south-east of Russia. Bogdanow says that it is found as 

 far north as Saratov on the Volga and Orenberg on the Ural, and as far 



* There is no reason whatever to suppose that Bechstein's Alauda arvensis ruficept 

 refers to this species. No mention is made of the white patch on the wing, and the 

 description differs in other particulars. 



