118 ANDALUSIAN 8H0BT-T0ED LARK. 



much darker than any specimens of either C. minor or C. pispoletta, 

 and has the breast and flanks very strongly striped with broad stripes 

 of blackish brown, larger and more distinct than those on the breast 

 of Alauda arborea. Judging from the series of specimens of C. minor 

 I have examined, amongst which is one, a female shot from her nest, 

 and thus in full breeding plumage, that bird has the markings much 

 duller, and less clearly defined in the summer than in the winter 

 dress; and had Mr. Sharpe been able to compare the two specimens 

 of the present species with C. minor in full breeding plumage, he 

 would at once have seen that it could not possibly be that bird. 

 Besides the difference in colour, the present species has on the average 

 a shorter wing than C. minor, the average being 3.0 to 3.4 in the 

 present species, against 3.45 to 3.6 in C. minor.'''' 



Lord Lilford does not know much about the habits of the bird, 

 having only seen it in small flocks in March and April in the wheat 

 lands on the banks of the Guadalquiver, and believes it to be a 

 spring migrant to southern Spain: its nesting habits and eggs 

 resemble those of C. brachydactyla. 



Mr. Dresser remarks of the eggs supplied to him by Lord Lilford 

 that they are easily distinguished from those of C. hrachydactyla and 

 C. pispoletta. " They have the ground colour pure white, and are 

 blotched with pale purplish brown underlying shell patches or spots, 

 and dark hair brown overlying surface blotches. They are smaller 

 than the eggs of C. brachydactyla, having the markings larger and 

 more scattered over the surface of the shell; and I cannot better 

 describe them than by comparing them to very minute eggs of 

 Galerita cristata. In size they vary from §{} by §§ inch to f § by 

 !H ; whereas those of brachydactyla in my own collection vary from 

 lo by f ^ to |§ by |^, and those of C. pispoletta, obtained by Mr. 

 Blandford, from §* by \% to \% by £*." 



A male bird sent to me by Lord Lilford, and killed in April, 

 1872, has the head, back, and part of its upper wing coverts mottled 

 with light and dark brown, the latter predominating, and the markings 

 longitudinal. The greater wing coverts are lighter, two browns, 

 faintly margined with lighter colour. Primaries and secondaries uni- 

 colorous hair brown, lightly edged with grey, the outer web of the 

 first primary being narrow and grey. Tail dark brown, the outer 

 feathers on each side white, with a broad patch of brown on the 

 inner web. Throat and breast mottled with light grey and dark 

 brown. Abdomen dirty white. Flanks brown, with a tinge of buff. 

 Inner wing light brown. The first primary the longest, the others 

 successively a trifle less. Legs brown. Mr. Dresser says the iris is 



