OTOCORYS 381 



Hob. N. Africa from Algeria to Arabia, and is said to have 

 occurred in Southern Spain. 



Inhabits the elevated stony plateau land, more especially 

 places where the Helianthemum flourishes, and is usually to be 

 met with in solitary pairs in the summer, and in small bands in 

 the winter, not in large flocks. Its call-note is a soft tiri-tiri, 

 tiri-tiri, and its song, which is uttered from a stone or a hillock, 

 is described as being pleasant and melodious. It breeds in 

 April or May, the nest, which is constructed of grass-bents and 

 plant-stems, worked together with spiders' webs, and lined with 

 plant cotton and wool, is placed on the ground, frequently at 

 the foot of a Helianthemum, bush, in a depression scratched out 

 by the bird itself. The eggs, 2 or 3 in number, are dull white 

 or creamy white, spotted or marked with pale violet underlying 

 shell- and clay-brovvn or reddish brown surface-markings, and in 

 size average about 0*83 by 0*59. 



547. ATLAS MOUNTAIN SHORE-LARK. 

 OTOCORYS ATLAS. 



Otocorijs atlas, Whitaker, Bull. B.O.C. vii. p. xlvii. (1898) ; id. Ibis, 

 1898, p. 604, pi. xiii. 



ad. "Resembles 0. elwesi, but differs from that species in having the 

 upper wing-coverts of a uniform sandy-brown colour, the same as the back, 

 and not vinaceous, while the hind-crown and nape are of a rich rufescent 

 hue, and the upper throat of a pale sulphur colour. ^Che black of the 

 lower throat and cheeks is distinctly separated by a yellowish white patch, 

 as in 0. alpestris, while the general colour of the upper parts, the black 

 over the base of the bill, the bill itself, and the long hornlets are all as in 

 0. penicillata. Iris brown ; bill greyish black ; legs black. Total length 

 about 7 inches. Culmen O'GO, wing 4'45, tarsus 0*80 inch." (Whitaker.) 



Hob. Atlas Mountains, N. Africa. 



I have not had an opportunity of examining a specimen of 

 this Shore-Lark, which appears to be a southern and western 

 form of 0. alpestris, closely allied to 0. elwesi. 



548. EASTERN SHORE-LARK. 

 OTOCORYS PENICILLATA. 



Otocorys penicillata, Gould, P.Z.S. 1837, p. 126 ; Dresser, iv. p. 395, 

 pi. 244 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiii. p. 530 ; Gates, F. Brit. Ind. 

 Birds, ii. p. 319 ; 0. scriba (Bp.), Comp. List, p. 37 (1838) ; 0. 

 albigula, Bp. Consp. i. p. 246 (1850) ; 0. larvata, De Filipp. Arch.. 

 Zool. Anat. etc. ii. p. 381 (1863). 



