238 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
R. E. C.); & Basra, 21-11-17. (C. B. T.) Wings measure, @Q 90-103. This 
race is greyer and less red-brown than m. minor. 
(2) The status of this race is obscure. Cheesman obtained one from a flock 
at Kasimain in the desert on March 5th and one of Pitman’s Samarra birds on 
November 4th on which day he got also heinei, 1 refer to this race ; probably 
they flock together in winter as I obtained twelve specimens out of a huge flock 
at Basra on November 21st and from the same flock one typical hzinei. Cum- 
ming obtained two at Fao on August 26th and September 25th, 1886. 
Zarudny records minor and persica from the Karun district in winter and on 
passage ; no specimens of ours aie referable to persica. @ 92—95°5; Q 
87°5—91 mm. 
Some scft of Short-toed Lark, whether of the minor or brachydactyla group is 
not known, breeds, according to Cheesman, on the undulating uplands above 
Tekrit. 
39. Desert Lark. Ammomanes deserti. 
Ammomanes deserti fraterculus, Trist. (P. Z.S8. Lond., 1864, p. 434— 
Palestine). (I restrict this to “‘ Wilderness of Judea ’’.} 
The Desert Lark occurs in at least four areas in Mesopotamia but whether all 
belong to the same species or race is not known. It is fairly common in the 
Tekrit-Adhaim area frequenting bare plain or rocky ground and is evidently 
resident and breeds there, 2s L. Home found them in pairs on the Tekrit uplands 
in May and found several nests, and Pitman and Cheesman met with it in this 
district in winter in pairs or smail parties. It probably occurs in the foot hills 
up to the Kurdistan boundary. Pitman notes that it can always be distin- 
guished in the field by its querulous piping note. 
A Desert Lark occurs on the western side of the Euphrates in the Museyib 
district north of the Kerbela canal, where Pitman saw a few in June. Logan 
Home records it from the desert west of the Euphrates at Rumailah on June 5th, 
where it was evidently breeding. Zarudny says fraterculus is resident in the 
Karun foot hilis. All our specimens come from the Tekrit-Adhaim area and all 
belong to the Palestine form fraterculus, but it does not at all follow that the 
birds from the Syrio-Arabian desert (west of the Euphrates) also belong to this 
form; they may even belong to a race of the other species phaenicura, and 
therefore specimens from this desert are highly desirable. 
Buxton too informs me that one he obtained at Kasr-i-Sherin just over the 
Persian frontier on the Kermanshah road does not belong to the form fralerculus 
nor to any race of which there are specimens in British or Tring Museum. 
Further specimens from this neighbourhood also are desiderata. The Desert 
Larks are peculiarly local birds in their racial forms and though one may have 
one race of wide distribution, abutting on its area may be another race whose 
distribution is very local, and therefore the determination of this Lark in Meso- 
potamia cannot be fully made out until specimens are forthcoming from every 
district in which it occurs. 
Nine specimens examined : Bait-al-Khalifa, 19-12-17 (two); Shat-al-Adhaim, 
2-10-17 (two) ; (C. R. P). @ Y, Samarra, 30-11-18; @, Tekrit, 17-4-19. (P. Z. C. 
and It. 8.C.). 
These are in no way distinguishable from specimens from the Dead Sea and 
Wilderness of Judea. 
40. Crested Lark. Galerida cristata. 
Galerida cristata magna, Hume (Ibis, 1871, p. 407—Yarkand). 
This may be said to be the commonest and most generally distributed bird in 
Mesopotamia, frequenting almost every kind of ground, though naturdlly scarcer 
in quite bare desert and thick scrub ; even the oases have their pair of Crested 
Larks, about the only resident birds they can boast. It is resident throughout 
the whole district, but its numbers are augmented in winter by immigrants from 
