DUPONT'8 LABK. 109 



GRANIVOEiE. 



Family ALAUDIDJE. 



Genus Alauda. ( Linnceus.J 



DUPONTS LAEK. 



Alauda dupontii. 



Alauda dupontii, Vieillot; Faun. Fr., p. 173, 1828. 



" " Temminck; Man., 1835. Lesson. 



" " SCHINZ. SCHLEGEL. DEGLAND. 



" ferruginea, Muhle (?) Orn. Griech., p. 35. 



Certhilauda duponti, Bonaparte; Consp. Av., p. 246. 



" " Tristram; Ibis, vol. i., p. 427. 



" " Loche; Cat., p. 85. 



Alouette Dupont, Of the French. 



Duponfs Lerche, Of the Germans. 



Specific Characters. — Beak as long as the head, and distinctly curved. Two 

 outer tail feathers white, with a dusky band on the inner web; the second 

 brown black, with the outer web white. Hinder claw shorter than the toe, 

 and distinctly curved. 



Length of male sent me by Mr. Tristram, which is figured, six inches 

 and three quarters ; from carpus to tip four inches ; tail two inches and a 

 half; beak seven eighths of an inch; tarsus one inch; hinder claw three 

 eighths of an inch; hinder toe half an inch. 



This bird has been considered by many ornithologists as a variety 

 of the Skylark, and Keyserling and Blasius have even described it 

 as a monstrosity. Homeyer, in Cabanis' Journal, heft 3, 1859, p. 204, 

 speaks of it doubtfully as a species, and gives in the same article 

 some excellent advice about the too prevalent habit of species-making. 

 In "Naumannia," part 3, 1858, Professor Blasius, however, after 

 giving the various opinions which have been held about this species 



