VOL. XI. | NOTES. 69 
EFFECTS OF THE SEVERE WINTER ON Birps.—We have 
to acknowledge the receipt of much additional information 
on this subject since the publication of our last number. 
We hope that those who have not already responded to the 
invitation to forward details of any decrease they have 
noted in birds breeding in their district, will do so not later 
than August 15th.—Eps. 
ALBIN’Ss “ Brack LarK.”’—Dr. W. E. Clarke draws 
attention (Scot. Nat., 1917, pp. 49-50) to the plate and descrip- 
tion of the “ Black Lark ” in Albin’s Natural History of Birds 
(1738, Vol. IIT., p. 47 and Plate 51) and contends that this 
bird, which was got in Middlesex about 1737, was an example 
of Melanocorypha yeltoniensis. With this conclusion we 
cannot at all agree for the following reasons: The bill as 
drawn is not in the least like the very characteristic thick and 
heavy bill of Melanocorypha, but is exactly the size and 
shape of the much more slender bill of Alauda; the legs 
and feet are described (and coloured in the plate) as ‘ dirty 
yellow,” while those of I. yeltoniensis are black; the bird 
is described as “dark reddish-brown inclining to black,” 
but in the plate is made jet black except for the wings, which 
are dark brown—the male M. yeltoniensis is iet black all over 
(with whitish tips to the feathers in fresh plumage) and is 
without any brown. 
The colouring in Albin’s plates is usually crude and 
exaggerated but the drawing of the bills in most of the 
plates is quite good. 
We have no doubt whatever that the bird described and 
figured was a melanistic variety of the Skylark, and there 
are examples like it in many museums. As pointed out by 
Dr. Clarke, Latham, in 1782, considered it to be a dusky 
variety of the Skylark, a conclusion which Dr. Clarke “‘ does 
not consider justifiable,’ though why, he does not state. 
We have given our reasons against its having been a 
Melanocorypha yeltoniensis and see no reason why it should 
not have been a melanistic variety of Alauda arvensis, such 
varieties being of not very rare occurrence. 
WESTERN BLACK-EARED WHEATEAR OFF CO. WEXFORD.— 
Professor C. J. Patten, who has already recorded the fact that 
a bird of this species was obtained on the Tuskar Rock on 
May 16th, 1916 (cf. Brit. B., Vol. X., p. 122), now contributes 
a long and detailed article on the subject to Novitates 
Zoologicee (Vol. XXIV., 1917, pp. 1-16). The bird was a male 
(black-throated) of the western race (nanthe h. hispanica, 
It was caught on the rock by Mr. Glanville, the light-keeper, 
