4}0 The Skylarks of India. 



eiglit and ten thousand feet, and fifth, what I take to be the 

 Leiopus type from Ladak, Thibet, and the higher Himalayan 

 plateau generally. 



Typical specimens of each of these races may be so selected 

 as to make it apparently indisputable, that each represents a 

 distinct species ; but even the small series, some five or six of 

 each, that I possess seems to shew that no hard and fast line 

 can be drawn between any of them ; and it is quite certain 

 that no satisfactory separation can ever be effected, until a 

 really large series of each of these five races (and any others 

 that further investigation may bring to light) is brought to- 

 gether in one collection and most carefully collated. 



Of these five races the most distinct appears to be the sky- 

 lark of the high Himalayan plateau (which however in the 

 cold season may, and doubtless does, descend into the lower 

 hills and valleys) which I identify with Hodgson^'s Orientalis 

 vel Leiopus. This race has the whole lower breast and ab- 

 domen perfectly pure snowy white, and this I have observed 

 in none of the other races. The bill is slender like the 

 true Gulgula ; but still more sharply pointed; the wings, too, 

 are larger on an average than in any other of the four races, 

 and in the males vary apparently from 3" 8 to 4*0 inches. 

 I possess no ascertained female. This race cannot be mistaken 

 (though it approximates to it in length of wing) for Dtdcivox, 

 although the lower parts in that species, too, are at times pure 

 white. It is altogether a smaller and less bulky bird, and has 

 a comparatively much longer and markedly more slender bill. 



Next to this comes the true Gulgula, which, in the summer 

 at any rate, extends to Cashmere and other comparatively low 

 hill valleys, where, as well as in the plains, it breeds freely. 

 I have specimens of this race from Eta w ah, Rohfcuck, the Sam- 

 bhur Lake, Bhawulpoor, and Srinuggur, Cashmere. The bill 

 in this race closely resembles that of Leiopus, and is considerably 

 slenderer than those of any of the other three races. The upper 

 surface is much paler than in any of the other four, and the 

 abdomen is pale rufous white. The wings of the male in this 

 race seem to vary from about 3"7 to 3" 8 inches. 



The typical Malabaricus has a considerably stouter bill than 

 either of the preceding ; the wings are about the same size 

 as those of Gulgida, but the whole upper surface is conspicuously 

 darker, a mixture of deep brown and bright rufous buff, such 

 as is not met with even in freshly moulted specimens of 

 Gulgula, and the lower surface, too, is more markedly tinged 

 with rufous. 



The nameless race from Saugorj Raipoor, &c.; appears to be 



