238 NOTE ON THE SYNONYMY OF SPIZALAUDA. 
Scopoli, the smaller is the Spizalauda deva of Jerdon’s Birds 
of India, previously described by him as Mirafra Hayi. 
The name Alauda malabarica of Scopoli was given to the 
Crested Lark of the Malabar Coast (alouette huppée de la céte 
de Malabar), figured and described by Sonnerat in his “ Voyage 
aux Indes Orientales et & la Chine.” The same figure and de- 
scription were the origin of Latham’s Malabar Lark and Gmelin’s 
Alauda malabarica. Sonnerat describes his bird as five 
inches nine lines (French) long, and with a wing measuring 
three inches and four lines (the corresponding English measures 
being 6 and 3°55 inches), and gives the following account of 
the plumage :—“ The feathers on the top of the head are long 
and form a crest which the bird can raise at will; they are 
brown, terminated by a white band; tke feathers of the neck 
light rufous, marked with a longitudinal black band which is 
broader below; the throat and abdomen are of a rufous white ; 
the feathers of the back and the small wing feathers (i.e. the 
coverts) brown, terminated by a very light rufous border; at 
the extremity of each feather is a white spot; the large wing 
feathers (quills) and those of the tail earthy brown, terminated 
by a rufous edge; beak black; feet reddish.” 
The white edges to the crest feathers, and the white spots on 
the mantle, are probably signs of immaturity, and the figure 
represents, I think, a young bird. With these exceptions it 
agrees in every respect with Spizalauda: it has the characteris- 
tic pointed crest, and a short hind claw. The dimensions would 
correspond with either form ; for, as will be seen, the male of the 
smaller kind is sometimes as large as the female of the larger. 
I believe, however, that the larger form is that found on the 
Malabar Coast, and consequently that Sonnerat’s figure and de- 
scription must have been taken from it. 
Mr. Blyth appears originally* to have identified with Son- 
nerat’s Lark the rufous variety of the Indian Sky Lark, which 
is so common on the Nilgiri hills, and which, after passing 
through the hands of half the ornithologists who have lived in 
_ ‘India, has at last found one in the person of Mr. Brooks sufti- 
ciently bold to name it, although it is much to be regretted that 
the appellation selected is not very appropriate. This form also 
appears, to judge by the synonymy in Jerdon’s Birds of India, 
to be the A. malabarica of Blyth’s catalogue, with which 4. 
deva, Sykes, is identified. Subsequently in 1860, J. A. S. B., 
XXIX., p. 96, Mr Blyth mentions having recently seen the 
_ true A. malabarica, and it is to be presumed that the specimens 
- to which he refers are those now preserved under that name 
* In his Synopsis of Indian Fringillide, J. A. S. B., XIII., p. 962. 
