63 1 



v > 2i 



SX PYRRHULAUDA GRISEA. 



(THE BLACK-BELLIED FINCH-LARK.) 



Alauda grisea, Scopoli, Fauna? Insubr. ii. p. 95 (1786). 



Alauda gingica, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 795 (1788). 



Fringilla crucigera, Temm. PL Col. 269.%. 1 (1838). 



Pyrrhulauda crucigera (Temm.), Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. xi. p. 35 (1840). 



Pyrrhulauda grisea, G. E, Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 381 (1841) ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. 

 p. 134 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 126 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 259 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 479 (185G) ; 

 Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 424 (1863); Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 465 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 

 1873, p. 212 ; Adam, t. c. p. 3SS ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 478 (1874); Ball, 

 Str. Feath. 1874, p. 422; Legge, ibid. 1875, p. 371 ; id. Ibis, 1875, p. 399 ; Butler & 

 Hume, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 499; Fairbank, ibid. 1876, p. 261; Hume, t.c. p. 459; 

 Fairbank, ibid. 1877, p. 409 ; BaU, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 223 ; Cripps, t. c. p. 295. 



Alouette grise de Gingi, Scopoli, Sonn. Toy. Ind. ii. p. 203 (1782). 



Gringi Lark, Duree Finch (Latham) ; Squat Finch, Ortolan, Europeans in India. Biyora, 

 Buri, and (most commonly) Babha/c-churi, lit. " Squat Sparrow," Hind. ; Chat Bharai, 

 Bhula-chata, in Bengal ; Poti-pichike, lit. " Short or Ground-Sparrow." 



Adult male. Length 4'8 to 5-0 inches ; wing 3'0 to 3T ; tail 1/6 ; tarsus 0-6 ; middle toe and claw 0'5o ; bill to 

 gape - 5. 



Iris brown or yellowish brown. ; bill whitish ; legs and feet reddish grey, claws dusky ; eyelids brown. 



Above greyish brown, with a rufescent tinge on the back, the bases of the feathers brown, and the head paling gradually 

 into the albescent of the forehead ; wings and tail brown, the coverts, tertials, and secondaries very broadly edged 

 and tipped with whitish ; the major coverts and tertials slightly tinged with rufous : tail pale edged, with thr 

 outer feathers almost entirely rufescent whitish ; cheeks and ear-coverts white ; a broad baud from the gape over 

 the eyes to the occiput, chin, throat, sides of fore- neck, centre of chest, breast, belly, and under tail-coverts 

 dull black ; under wing-coverts the same ; sides of chest greyish white. 



In abraded plumage the fulvous-brown margins of the clothing-feathers disappear and the "ribs" of the tvebs becom< 

 bleached, giving the plumage a grey appearance ; the pale tips of the tertial feathers and the margins of the 

 rectrices likewise disappear. 



l-\ male. Length 5-S inches : wing 2 - 75 to 2-95. 



Bill not so white as in the male. 



Head and upper surface earthy brown ; the upper tail-coverts margined with whitish ; the wings not so conspicuously 

 margined ; the white cheeks and all the black markings are wanting, the under surface being albescent, washed 

 with fulvous-brown on the chest, the feathers being centred darker than the edges ; flanks dusky ; bases of the 

 greater under wing-coverts dark brown ; supercilium and space just beneath the eye buffy white : ear-coverts 

 brownish. In birds in old plumage the upper tail-coverts are dark from abrasion. 



Young. The nestling is at first covered with fulvous-coloured down. 



A young female (St. Thomas Mount, Madras) has the feathers of the head and occiput tipped with ochraceous and 

 marked with a subterminal blackish band ; the feathers of the back and rump have the same blackish markings, 

 but not so dark, and their tips and lateral margins are buff ; ear-coverts and sides of neck brownish tawny : wing- 

 coverts and tertials broadly margined with fulvous tawny ; upper tail-coverts pale fulvous ; central tail-feathers 

 sandy buff, and the whole edged with buffy white : beneath tawny yellowish ; the chest and breast with dark 

 centres to the feathers. 



The tarsal scales are very pronounced in this immature specimen. 



