WHITE-WINGED LARK. 281 



are much more pear-shaped, and the spots are much larger , more boldly 

 defined, and not so numerous. They resemble those of the Calandra 

 Lark much more closely, as might be expected, but are, on an average, 

 smaller. 



Of the food of this bird we know nothing ; but it is probably similar to 

 that of the Calandra Lark, and consists partly of insects and flieir larvae 

 and partly of grain and other seeds, according to the season. 



The adult male White-winged Lark in breeding-plumage has the head 

 and ear-coverts pale chestnut ; the lores and the feathers round and behind 

 the eye are white ; the remainder of the upper parts are greyish brown with 

 a sandy tinge, darkest on the back, each feather with a dark-brown centre ; 

 the upper tail-coverts are the most rufous, and the dark centre of the 

 feathers is little more than a shaft-line ; the lesser wing- coverts are 

 chestnut; the median and greater ones are chestnut-brown, with pale 

 margins; the primaries are dark brown tipped with white, the eighth, 

 ninth, and tenth, with the greater part of the inner web and the tip of the 

 outer web, white ; the terminal half of the secondaries is pure white, the 

 basal half brown, and the innermost secondaries are dark chestnut-brown 

 with rufous margins. The tail is brownish black, the two centre feathers 

 with broad pale chestnut margins, and the next three pairs edged with 

 white ; the second pair white on the outer web, and the outermost pair all 

 white. The general colour of the underparts is dull white, shading into 

 huffish on the breast and into brown on the flanks ; many of the feathers 

 on the sides of the throat, and all on the upper breast, have a terminal spot 

 of brown. Bill dark horn-coloured above, pale yellowish below ; legs, feet, 

 and claws brown; irides brown. The female resembles the male in colour, 

 but is duller, and the feathers on the head are pale rufous with dark brown 

 centres. After the autumn moult the white tips of the primaries and the 

 margins of the innermost secondaries are pale chestnut, and the breast and 

 flanks are suffused with buff. Young in first plumage are spotted some- 

 what like a young Sky-Lark, but are easily distinguished by their much 

 stouter bill, larger size, and the feathers of the upper parts being tipped 

 with pure white. 



The White-winged Lark belongs to a little group of large Larks which 

 are emphatically Steppe-Larks, and by some ornithologists are placed in a 

 separate genus. There are half a dozen species of Melanocorypha ; but it 

 is impossible to find any generic character common to the group, except 

 that of size. In the Steppe-Larks the height of the bill at the base is 

 3 inch, whilst in the Sky-Larks it is only '2 inch. Of all the Steppe- 

 Larks the White- winged Lark and the Black Lark are the most likely to 

 occur in our islands, because they breed the furthest north and thus come 

 within the range of the great stream of migration, which may carry off a 



