NO. 1 195. BIRDS FE M CENTR AL A SI A — OBERHOLSER. 219 



mandible liorny brown at base, tip yellow ; lower mandible yellow; feet 

 dull olive; iris in two zones, inner zone red, outer pinkish white. 

 Length of male, l^h inches; female, 14 inches." 



Family ALAUDID^. 



CALANDRELLA ACUTIROSTRIS Hume. 

 CaJandrella aciitirostris Hume, Lahore to Yarkand, 1873, p. 265. 



Two specimens, from Bazgo plain, Ladak, 11,000 feet. " Iris dark 

 brown; bill dark horn-brown above, yellowish at base beneath; feet 

 brownish fleshy; claws pale horn-brown. Common on this plain, in 

 pairs," These examples are identical with those previously collected 

 by Br. Abbott in Ladak and Tagdumbash Pamir but recorded by Dr. 

 Richmond as tibetana.^ 



From Calandrella hrachydaciyla and duJchunensis hoth acutirostris und 

 tibetana may readily be distinguished by the absence of deep bufify 

 tinge in the edgings of the exterior webs of the outermost tail-feathers. 

 Aside from the shape of the bill, a diifereutial character apjjareiitly 

 quite unreliable by reason of the great range of individual variation, 

 tibetana may be separated from acutirostris by the pattern of the outer 

 pair of tail-feathers. In the former species the whole feather is white 

 excepting the basal third of the inner web and the extreme base of the 

 outer, which are obliquely blackish; in acutirostris the inner web of 

 the outer tail-feathers is largely blackish, the white occupying a diago- 

 nally terminal area equal to only about a fourth of the inner vane 

 and one-half the outer. Dr. Richmond's inability satisfactorily to dis- 

 tinguish from tibetana the specimens he records as acutirostris- is 

 explained by the fact that he had no examples of tibetana, those with 

 which he made his comparison as such being all acutirostris. 



ALAUDA ARVENSIS LEIOPUS (Hume). 

 Alaiida leiopus Hume, Stray Feathers, I, November, 1872, p. 40. 



Two breeding males from Shooshot, Indus Valley, Ladak, at 10,000 

 feet. Dr. Abbott reports them as " very common in the cultivated 

 fields." These specimens do not differ from those obtained by Dr. 

 Abbott in Cashmere. 



Owing to the unfortunate confusion which at present exists among 

 the races of Alauda arvensis, any determination must of necessity be 

 largely tentative; but so far as our series is indicative, the birds from 

 eastern Asia are larger and have more slender bills than those from 

 Cashmere and Ladak, the difference being apparently sufficient to war- 

 rant subspecific separation. Dr. Eicbmond used the name Alauda 



I Proc. U. S. Nat. Mns., XVIII, 1896, pp. 467, 579. 

 ^Idem., p. 579. 



