PLECTROPHA NESCERTHILA UDA 375 



Hob. The Arctic portions of both continents, breeding in the 

 mountain ranges of Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Iceland, the 

 Faroes, and Scotland, migrating south in winter to the 

 Mediterranean (very rarely) ; Japan, Manchuria, and N. China ; 

 in America to the Northern United States ; goes nearer to the 

 Pole than any other Passerine bird. 



In habits it resembles the Larks much more than the true 

 Buntings, being usually seen on the ground, where it runs 

 nimbly, hiding when alarmed, and only occasionally perching on 

 trees or fences. Its call-note is a prolonged tsee, and its song is 

 said to be a pleasant twittering warble often uttered on the 

 wing. Its food consists of insects and seeds, the latter chiefly 

 during the winter. It breeds in June, placing its nest, which is 

 constructed of grass-bents and a little moss, lined with feathers 

 or down, in the cleft of a rock or under a stone. The eggs, 

 5 to 6 in number, are bluish white marked with rusty brown or 

 blackish brown spots and blotches, and measure about 0'82 

 by 0'65. Ridgway describes s.n. P. nivalis townsendi (Man. 

 N.A. Birds, p. 403), a form from the Prybilof Islands, Alaska, 

 Commander Islands, and Kamchatka ; which he says is " larger 

 with a much larger and longer bill " than P. nivalis, but I do 

 not consider it as separable. But his P. hyperboreus (P. U.S. Nat. 

 Mus. vii. p. 68, 1884), from Hall Island, St. Matthew's Island, 

 and Alaska, differs in being pure white with only the tips of 

 the five outer primaries, and the tips of the median rectrices 

 black, and is undoubtedly a good species. 



CERTHILAUDA, Swainson, 1827. 



539. BlFASCIATED LARK. 

 CERTHILAUDA ALAUDIPES. 



Certfiilauda alaudipes (Desf.), Mem. de 1'Acad. Eoy. des Sciences, 1787, 

 p. 504, pi. xvi. ; Dresser, iv. p. 273 ; (Sharpe) Cat. B. Br. Mus. 

 xiii. p. 518 ; Kcenig, J. f. 0. 1895, p. 434, Tab. vii. fig. 5 (eggs) ; 

 C. desertorum (Stanley), in Salt's Trav. Abyss. App. p. lx. (1814) ; 

 Dresser, iv. p. 275, pi. 226 ; (Sharpe) torn. cit. p. 519 ; C. bifasciata 

 (Licht), Verz. Doubl. p. 27 (1823) ; Gould, B. of E. iii. p. 168. 



Alouette bifasctie, French ; Muka, Arabic. 



ad. (N. Africa). Upper parts pale sandy isabelline tinged with grey 

 on the head and nape, the rump and upper tail-coverts paler ; primaries 

 white at the base, increasing inwards, otherwise blackish, the innermost 

 tipped with white ; secondaries white with a blackish central band ; 

 larger coverts tipped with white, the smaller margined with isabelline ;, 



