G38 PYRRHULATJDA GEISEA. 



Males of the year are no doubt browner on the upper surface than adults, and the forehead is not albescent ; but the 

 peculiarly grey appearance of the latter arises from abrasion. The moulting-time is in March and April. 



Obs. Examples kindly sent me by the Director of the Madras Museum from the neighbourhood of that place are very 

 similar to our birds. A male in abraded plumage is not quite so grey as some of my specimens, and the black 

 superciliary streak is broader. A female is slightly darker. <3 , wing 2'05 inches ; ? , wing 3-0. Another male 

 measures 3 - l in the wing. 



A female in Mr. Anderson's collection from Euttehgur is paler above than any Ceylonese examples ; the edges of the 

 feathers are grey, and the centres not so brown ; wing 3-0 inches. Two examples from " Bengal " in the national 

 collection, male and female, measure 3-0 and 2-8 inches in the wing respectively ; the latter is very dark and the 

 former of a decidedly pale type. Specimens from Northern India, and especially from Sindh, are probably, as 

 a rule, paler than Southern birds. 



Allied to the present species is P. melanauchen, C'abanis, = P. affinis, Blyth, from Sindh, &c, the males of which have 

 the crown and occiput black or concolorous with the eye-streak, and a broad white forehead. In the type mention 

 is made of a blackish spot on the nape ; but it does not, according to Mr. Hume's remarks (Str. Eeath. 1S73, 

 p. I'll'), always appear to be present. This species is larger in the bill and wing than P. grisea. 



Distribution. — This curiously plumaged and pretty little Lark was believed by Layard to be migratory; 

 this is, however, not the case, although from his remark, " I have seen flocks careering from the direction of 

 the continent when out dredging," there seems to be a movement of the species from the continent to the 

 north of the island, probably during the cool season. It is a resident in all the dry and arid portions of the 

 maritime provinces of Ceylon, scarcely ever, to my knowledge, except as a straggler, extending more than about 

 twenty miles inland. In the north of the island, and in all the islands between Jaffna and Manaar, down the 

 west coast as far as the Chilaw district, and entirely round the east side to the borders of the wet region on 

 the Girawa Pattu, it is a common bird ; but south of Negombo and round the south-west coast to Tangalla it is 

 not found. On one occasion as I was riding up the Pass from Rainbodde to Nuwara Elliya, in November 1870, 

 when mar the top I was astonished to see feeding quietly by the roadside a male Finch-Lark. This, I believe, 

 is the only instance of its being seen at any great elevation, and the only occasion which I know of its being 

 found in the interior of Ceylon ; and its occurrence at that great altitude is so remarkable that I am unable to 

 come to any other conclusion than that it was driven south by the high north-east winds and stormy weather 

 which were at that time prevailing. Were there dry plains in the interior of Ceylon, it would, of course, be 

 found on them. 



This Finch-Lark is found all over the plains of India, from the extreme south to the foot of the Himalayas, 

 except, says Jerdon, on the Malabar coast. It is particularly abundant, according to the same author, in 

 Western India, Sindh, and the Punjaub ; and in the North-west Provinces Mr. A. Anderson recorded it as 

 common. It is found in Ramisserum Island and on the adjoining mainland. About Madras it is common; 

 and the Rev. Dr. Fairbank procured it at Peria Kulam near the base of the Palanis, and which place has an 

 altitude of more than 900 feet. In the Deccan it is, according to the same observer, very abundant. Mr. Ball 

 found it very common in all the open parts of the Chota Nagpur, and he records it from many places and 

 districts between the Godaveri and the Ganges, including the Rajmchal hills. In Furreedpore it is "pretty 

 common ;" but Mr. Cripps has not observed it there between the months of November and February. It does 

 not extend into the countries to the eastward of the Bay of Bengal, but has, on the contrary, a westerly range. 

 On the plains of Sindh, Kattiawar, Guzerat, and in the Sambhur district it is found in abundance. Captain 

 Butler obtained it close to Kurraehec, but did not observe it on Mount Aboo. Its extending into Arabia, as 

 mentioned by Jerdon, doubtless refers to the allied species P. melanauchen, which has a western distribution. 



Habits. — This sociable little Lark is fond of the barest plains and the driest ground that it can find. 

 It especially frequents, therefore, the arid land surrounding the great salt-water lagoons and "leeways" and 

 the wide estuaries and river-mouths which indent the whole of the north and east coasts of the island. I have 

 often seen it on the dried-up fore-shores of the Ilambantota "leeways," or the vast sand tracts which are 

 left bare in the dry season at the head of the Jaffna and other lakes in the north, sitting motionless in those 



