Kofe^ on the Bhylarhs of India. 485 



4. A sliortov, darker^ and stouter bill, and not so pointed a& in 

 the European bird. 



5. Darkei leg's and feet. 



6. Purer white on outer tail feathers. 



7. The cold grey tone of the upper plumage, with strongly 

 contrasting dark central streaks. 



8. Being motdicolous or more properly alpine during the- 

 summer season, in vvhicli respect it is totally opposed to its 

 European representative which avoids mountainons countries, and 

 specially affects low lands. 



The identification of this well marked Alpine lark with 

 A. arvensls would only be excusable* in the absence of specimens 

 of the latter for comparison. 



2. Alauda GU'rTATA,t Brooks, our second Indian Skylark 

 is the species described by me in J. A. S., Vol. XLI., part 

 II., 1873, p. 78. It is closely allied to A. giblgala, Franklin, but 

 the differences between it and A. gulgida have been already 

 pointed out in the original description. I still believe it to be a 

 good species, and none of the examples of A. gidgida, obtained out 

 of Cashmere by me, accord with it. 



3. Alauda, gulgela, Franklin, our third species, is the com- 

 mon skylark of the N. W. Provinces, and breeds over a tract 

 of countr}^ extending" from Cawnpore to Almorah. The rang-e 

 within which it breeds is probably more extended, but I speak 

 only of what I have observed myself Hodgson^s drawings and 

 descriptions of A. iriborhyiicha and A. le'wpus vel. ofiettlaiis , ap- 

 peared to me to be identical with A. gnlgida. The Rev. Dr; 

 Tristram, after comparing examples of gidgalcv which I had sent 

 with the types sent home by jMr. Hodgsuu, also independently, 

 came to the sanre conclusion'. 



I think Mr. Hume may have been wrong in identifying 

 Hodgson's ^:i. leiopus with "the lark of the high Himalayan 

 plateau/' the dimensions of which agree with those of the Cash- 

 mere lark {A. gidiaia) which 1 found in sm:dl numbers at (jul- 

 murg', but very pknitiful in the Cashmere valley. 



* Unfortunately those liarcIonL'd sinners Messrs. Sluirpe, Dresser, and Hume 

 have not even this excuse. Tlio fact is that the larger the scries of European ami 



Asiatic larks that are compared, the more certain it bceomes that not one of the 

 distinctions insisted upon by Mr. Brooks hold coiistautlt/ good. — Ed., Stuay Fea- 



THEKS. 



t This is the race which I have figured in Lahore to Yarkand (pi. XXVIIT.,)' 

 as A. i riborhi/ucha ; I do not uow believe iii the specitic separability of these 

 various races. —Ed., JSiTiAY Eeaxhebs. - . 



H 



