352 



conclusion, after careful comparison, that the Lark is not new, but is C. reboudia in full breeding- 

 plumage." 



Quite lately, when working at the Short-toed Larks, Mr. Howard Saunders brought to me a 

 single specimen which had been sent to him from the south of Spain, and which he thought 

 would prove to be distinct. After comparing it with a large series of Short-toed Larks, I was 

 convinced that it was a perfectly new bird, and advised him to describe it ; but on showing it to 

 Lord Lilford he at once pronounced it to be the same as the two specimens above referred to ; 

 and on obtaining these specimens from Mr. Sharpe this proved to be the case. That it is a per- 

 fectly distinct and good species there cannot be the least doubt, as the present bird is very much 

 darker than any specimen of either C. minor or C. pispoletta, and has the breast and flanks very 

 strongly striped with broad stripes of blackish brown, larger and more distinct than those on the 

 breast of Alauda arborea. Judging from the series of specimens of C. minor I have examined, 

 amongst which is one, a female, shot from her nest, and thus in full breeding-plumage, that bird 

 has the markings much duller and less clearly defined in the summer plumage than in the winter 

 dress ; and had Mr. Sharpe been able to compare the two specimens of the present species with 

 C. minor in full breeding-plumage, he would at once have seen that it could not possibly be that 

 bird. Besides the difference in colour, the present species has on the average a shorter wing than 

 C. minor, the average being 30 to 3*4 in the present species against 3 - 45 to 3-6 in C. minor. 



Besides the above three specimens, a large series has just arrived from Spain, all of which 



agree inter se, thus clearly proving the validity of the species ; and Lord Lilford has requested 



me to describe it in the present part of my work, and proposes for it the name of Calandrella 



bcetica, after the river on whose banks it was first met with, under which name it will now stand. 



Of the habits of C. bcetica but little is known ; and Lord Lilford informs me that he himself 



knows " very little about the bird from personal observation, having only seen it in small flocks 



in March and April in the wheat-lands on the banks of the Guadalquivir, and believes it to be a 



spring migrant to Southern Spain ; its nesting-habits and eggs resemble those of C. brachydactyla. 



Ruiz has sent some eggs as belonging to this species, which he calls ' carretera oscura de 



marisma.' I first met with this bird in the Seville market, hanging amongst a bundle of other 



allied species and Passer salicicola. I always saw it in small flocks about the corn-land, never 



away in the open ' marisma,' properly so called. The first specimens were brought to me in 



either February or March. Manuel Llano, our chasseur, says that they arrive in the former 



month ; certainly he could get me none during last winter until the month of February. I 



particularly asked Ruiz to let me know whether it does occur during the winter." If, as Lord 



Lilford supposes, this species migrates from Spain during the winter, it will be interesting to 



find out whither it goes ; for out of numbers of Short-toed Larks I have examined, obtained in 



North-west Africa during the winter months, I have not seen one at all approaching the present 



species in appearance. 



I am indebted to Lord Lilford for the opportunity of examining the eggs of this species 

 and comparing them with those of C. brachydactyla and C. pispoletta, from either of which 

 they are easily distinguishable. They have the ground-colour pure white, and are blotched 

 with pale purplish-brown underlying shell-patches or spots, and dark hair-brown overlying 

 surface-blotches. Compared with the eggs of C. brachydactyla, they are smaller, and have the 



