380 Mr. L. N. G. Ramsay on the 



later it coutained two eggs ; these the birds subsequently 

 deserted, and I took them. One of them measures 25*2 x 

 18'5 mm. In colour they are nearly white, closely freckled 

 all over with dull brown, and with underlying paler spots of 

 yellowish brown and blue-grey. 



The singing of M. bimaculata is said to be similar to that 

 of M. calandra (Dresser, 1910, p. 324), which bird is de- 

 scribed as " springing from the ground and with a graceful 

 undulating motion describing a series of large circles until 

 it rises to an immense height ^^ (Dresser, 1881, p. 369, 

 quoting letter from Mr. G. F. Mathew). Another observer 

 (von der Miihle) states that it never soars so high as Alanda 

 arvensis (I. c. p. 389). Other writers do not mention the 

 spiral soaring. 



The Calandra Larks in the Kara Dagh and elsewhere did 

 not go in for spiral soaring — not they. They had a loud and 

 not unpleasant song, which they uttered while hovering, 

 usually not at a great height, above the ground. The song 

 was not continuous ; the bird paused after every few 

 phrases, as though the sineer had to stop to think between, 

 and it lacked most of the pleasant imitativeness that lends 

 so much charm to the Skylark's song — a repetition of short 

 warbling strains, with few clear notes. 



29. Sturnus xinicolor Temm. 



So far as I am able to say, this was the only species of 

 Sturnus I met with in the plateau of Asia Minor. Starlings 

 were pretty common about many of the towns and villages 

 in the plateau. At Eski-Sheher (May 19), and again at 

 Bardatchi (July 6), 1 watched Starlings at short range with 

 a powerful glass, and on these two occasions certainly they 

 were the black unspotted S. unicolor. 



There were no Starlings in the Kara Dagh. At Kolit- 

 Oglu on July 1 there were a good many Starlings, which 

 I entered in my journal at the time as " probably S. uni- 

 color/'' 



Dresser (1910) does not state that this Starling nests 

 anywhere to the eastward of Sicily and Sardinia, but quotes 



