133 [Vol. XXXV. 



which materially influences their coloration. We have a 

 darker form of Crested Lark [Galerida cristata neumanni) 

 in some parts of Italy than we have in Central Europe, 

 where there is much more rainfall. It is certainly the colour 

 of the soil which affects these birds. Naturally you can 

 find examples of G. c. neumanni on ground which is not 

 always as black as the soil shown, but that is the usual 

 colour. In Algeria the soil of the northern slopes of the 

 Atlas is dark practically everywhere ; in the plateaux it is 

 reddish or clay- coloured, and in the desert there is sand 

 which is very light and pale. If only I. had all the Crested 

 Larks from every country, with the soil upon which they 

 were shot, I think a very interesting paper could be written, 

 with plates showing the shade of colour of the backs of the 

 birds and the colour of the soil on which the various 

 subspecies live. 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant said that, at the request of Lord 

 Eothschild, he had brought for exhibition a series of the 

 Common Bustard-Quail (Turnix taigoor Skyes) to illustrate 

 the climatic variations in plumage caused by the amount of 

 rainfall in the districts the birds inhabited. The typical 

 form, found in the Deccan and other parts of Central and 

 Southern India where the rainfall was under 50 inches, 

 had the general colour of the upperparts reddish-chestnut, 

 while the birds inhabiting the Himalaya, parts of Burma, 

 the Malay Peninsula, and Formosa, where the rainfall was 

 upwards of 100 inches, had the general colour of the upper- 

 parts dark greyish-brown. These had been separated as 

 T. plumbipes (Hodgs.). 



In districts where the rainfall varied from about 60 

 to 100 inches, forms were found with the upperparts 

 intermediate in colour, a mixture of rufous and greyish- 

 brown. 



The species was widely distributed, ranging from India, 

 through Burma and China to Formosa and the Loo-Choo 

 Islands. Over the whole of that range, wherever the rain- 

 fall was small, from about 14-50 inches, the typical red 

 '' taigoor " form occurred ; thus it would be seen that the 



