132 SIBERIAN LARK. 



It is not very timid, and allows people to approach rather closely 

 without fear." 



A male specimen, sent me by Mr. Tristram from the Volga, without 

 date, but from the freshness and brightness of the plumage, evidently 

 in its nuptial robes, has the upper parts rich brown, bordered with 

 russet, lighter on the nape; the top of the head, lesser wing coverts, 

 and upper tail coverts, a brilliant red russet, which gives the bird 

 a marked and distinctive character. The inferior parts are of 

 a bluish white, with here and there a russet feather; the throat, 

 crop, and sides of the neck spotted with brown and russet, the latter 

 colour pervading the ear coverts. Under wing coverts and second- 

 aries pure white, the primaries blackish brown below; above, the 

 primaries and secondaries are dark brown, the latter at first white 

 on the inner web, becoming nearly entirely so in the middle. Tail 

 feathers brown, with more or less white on their inner webs; the 

 laterals quite of that colour. Beak livid, the upper mandible darkest; 

 tarsi russet; feet dark brown. 



My illustrations of the bird and its egg are from specimens sent 

 me by Mr. Tristram; the former is a male. They were obtained 

 from the keeper of the Imperial Museum of St. Petersburg, and are 

 stated to be from Dr. Middendorff. 



It has been also figured by Pallas, as Alauda leucoptera ; by Dubois, 

 in his "Oiseaux de la Belgique," part 74, pi. 102 — b, a very good 

 figure of the adult male and the young; and by Mr. Dresser, B. of E. 



