303 



GALERITA ISABELLINA. 



(ISABELLINE LARK.) 



Galerida isabellina, Bp. Consp. Gen. Av. p. 245 (1850). 



%Galerita flam, A. Brehm, Cab. Journ. 1854, p. 77. 



Galerita lutea, O. Brehm, Naumannia, 1858, p. 210 (nee C. L. Brehm, Vogelfang, p. 121). 



Ad. supra rufescenti-isabellinus, subtus albus : pilei plumis elongatis, pallide isabellinis, medialiter rufescente 

 brunneo notatis : nucha, albicante : dorso, uropygio, supracaudalibus, scapularibus et tectricibus alarum 

 rufescenti-isabellinis, albicante marginatis et apicatis: remigibus saturate brunnescenti-isabellinis, in 

 pogonio externo cervino limbatis : Cauda saturate brunnea, pennis duabus centralibus rufescenti-isabel- 

 linis, rectrice extima ad basin brunnea, in pogonio externo et ad apicem isabellina : facie laterali et 

 regione parotica, vix pallide brunneo notatis : pectore indistincte brunneo guttato : subalaribus albis 

 vix rufescente lavatis : subcaudalibus albis : rostro et pedibus pallide carneis : iride brunnea. 



Adult Male (El Ouibed, Souf, 1st of January, 1857). Rufescent isabelline above; underparts white; 

 feathers on the crown elongated, forming a crest, pale cream-colour, with rufous brown centres ; nape 

 dull white ; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts pale rufous cream-colour, mar- 

 gined and tipped with pale creamy white ; quills pale creamy brown on the inner web, rufescent 

 cream-colour on the outer web ; outermost tail-feathers dull brown at the base, especially on the inner 

 web, the terminal portion and outer web being pale sandy cream-colour, remaining rectrices, except 

 the central ones, dull blackish brown, marked with rufescent isabelline on . the outer web ; the two 

 central tail-feathers rufescent isabelline ; underparts white ; face and auriculars marked with very pale 

 sandy brown ; breast indistinctly spotted with pale sandy brown ; under wing-coverts white, with a 

 faint rufous tinge ; under tail-coverts white ; bill and feet very pale flesh-colour ; iris brown. Total 

 length 63 inches, culmen 62, wing 3 - 8, tail 2"7, tarsus 1. 



This, the representative in the arid sandy deserts of Northern Africa of our Common European 

 Crested Lark, differing merely in colour, and in being, as a rule, smaller than average specimens 

 of the latter species, is hitherto only known from Northern Africa; and out of a large and varied 

 series of specimens of Crested Larks from India I have seen none that at all resemble it, though 

 I should have expected to find specimens similar, or nearly like it, from the sandy desert plains 

 of India. 



It was first described by Bonaparte, from Nubia, where, and also in Egypt, it is said to be 

 common in the deserts. Bonaparte remarks that the feathers forming the crest are greatly 

 elongated ; but I do not observe this character in the specimens I have examined from Algeria, 

 and I have not been able to examine one from Nubia. Dr. Leith Adams, who met with it in 

 Egypt, records it as " common in waste and stony deserts — for instance, around the Necropolis 

 and valley leading to the Tombs of the Kings of Thebes. The transparency of its wings, and 

 their pale isabella colour, are very noticeable. I saw it often in Nubia." Antinori speaks of it 

 as " common on the sandy low hills near Cairo, near the Pyramids, and in Nubia to above 



