ALAUDIN.3E. 427 



runs and hops on the ground, and has a call note like that of the 

 real Larks. Towards the end of March in the south, April in the 

 north of India, different flocks often unite into vast troops, con- 

 taining many thousand birds, and quite darkening the air, so close 

 do they keep together, even when flying. Great numbers are 

 netted in some parts of the country, or taken by bird-lime, or 

 shot ; for when feeding, they keep close to each other. On one 

 occasion, on the cavalry parade-ground at Kamptee, I bao-o-ed 

 twelve dozen birds after discharging both barrels, and many wound- 

 ed birds escaped. They get quite fat about this time, and are 

 really very excellent eating, and they are always called Ortolan 

 by Europeans in India. They leave the north of India about the 

 end of April, or beginning of May, and they breed in the steppes 

 of Central Asia, Eastern Russia, and also in Northern Africa, 

 placing their nest on the ground at the edge of a scrub or bush, and 

 laying four to six eggs, usually marked with grey and rufous spots, 

 but sometimes, it is said, unspotted yellow brown. 



Alauda leucoptera, Pallas, from North Asia, is placed as a Calan- 

 drella by Bonaparte. The Oalandre Larks (Melanocorypha, Boie) 

 are large species, with very thick convex bills ; wings with 

 the first primary very minute or wanting, and the tertiaries 

 not elongated. The hind claw is straight and of moderate length. 

 They are chiefly inhabitants of Northern and Central Asia, the 

 South and East of Europe, and of Africa. Their habits are 

 said to be that of the last bird, and of Alauda, but that they 

 keep aloof from cultivation. One species, M. torguata, Blyth, M. 

 bimaculata of Menetries, is the Bokhara Lark of some Europeans 

 in the North-west, the Jxdl of the natives. It is a favorite 

 song bird of the AfTghans, and is often brought to the Punjab, 

 Cashmere, and even to Calcutta. It is very like M. cala?idra, but 

 is considered generically distinct by Blyth, and named Calandrina, 

 having a longer and less robust bill. Its general color is, much 

 as in Cal. hrachydactyla, but with a large blackish patch on each 

 side of the breast above, tending to meet across ; beneath whitish, 

 upper parts dusky, with pale sandy edgings. Length about 7^ 

 inches ; wing 4-1 ; tail 2|. It is quite possible that this Lark 

 may yet be found in the extreme North-west Provinces, it being 



