. The Ski/larJcs of India. 39 



These two species I should at present identify as Alanda 

 Arvev-ns, Linnaeus^ and Alauda Malabarica, Scop. 



Our specimens of Alauda Arvensis do not belong- precisely to 

 the race to which we Englishmen usually allot the name of 

 A7-vensis. On the contrary^ the wing is slightly smaller^ the hind 

 claw and tarsus as well as the bill slightly shorter^ and the lores 

 and the fore-part of the face are a somewhat purer white. At 

 least such is the case with my specimens. This species^ so far as 

 my observations go^ occurs only in the Himalayas and as a winter 

 visitant to the plains of the North-Western Punjab. It would ap- 

 pear to correspond closely^ if not exactfy, with that race of the 

 European skylark which Pastor Brehm separated as Alauda Agres- 

 ■ Us. This too ,is the bird which Hodgson designated Dulcivox, and 

 here I may note that it is a great mistake to identify his Dulcivox 

 with either Trihorliynclia or Orientalis vel Leiopus. Hodgson^s 

 original drawings clearly shew that Dulcivox was a larger bird, 

 with a wing of from 4 to 4*5 inches, the Himalayan represen- 

 tative, in fact, of Arvensis; and I have a bird killed at Murdan 

 in December 1870, absolutely identical in every respect with his 

 beautiful figure (now in my custody) ol Alauda Dulcivox. On the 

 other hand, his two drawings of Trlborhijncha and one of Orient- 

 alis vel Leiopus, show that both these species, or races, or perhaps 

 different sexes of the same race belonged to the smaller skylark 

 (all the different races of which I, for the present, include under 

 Malabarica) the wings of which vary from 3"3 to 3"8 inches. 



Of course our larg^er Himalayan lark, Arvensis as I should 

 call it, but Agrestis or Dulcivox, if any one considers it deserv- 

 ing of specific, separation, varies somewhat in length of hind claw 

 and bill, a great deal in length of wing according to sex and 

 still more in plumage, according to both sex and season; 

 but in all these matters, exactly parallel variations are to 

 be met with in the series of the true English Arvensis that 

 I ijossess, and whether we can agree to call our Indian bird 

 Arvensis or Dulcivox, there is only, I think, one race of the lai-ger 

 Indian skylark. A larger series of specimens however of this 

 species is necessarj^ before I could pronounce with any great 

 certainty on this point. 



When we come to Malabaricus, however, numerous races appear 

 to exist.' There is first the true GulgtUaoiihe plains of the North- 

 Western Provinces, Oudh, Bundelkund, and Rajpootana; second, 

 the darker typical MalaJjaricus from the Neilgherries and also 

 from Lower and Eastern Bengal ; third, a race intermediate be- 

 tween these from the' hilly, southern, and eastern portions of the 

 Central Provinces ; fourth, the true Triborliynclm from the 

 Himalayas^ from Murree to Sikhim, ranging up to heights of 



