363 



The following short account of the distribution of this species in North-eastern Africa is 

 given by Dr. von Heuglin : — " This Lark appears in Arabia and North-eastern Africa, southwards 

 to the Blue Nile, and in Abyssinia, as a winter visitant. It wanders in flocks about the fields and 

 steppes, and is very shy." 



When Dr. Jerdon wrote his ' Birds of India,' the present bird had not been known to occur 

 within Indian limits. He thus writes concerning it : — " One species, M. torquata, Blyth, 

 M. bimaculata of Menetries, is the Bokhara Lark of some Europeans in the north-west, the Jull 

 of the natives. It is a favourite song-bird of the Afghans, and is often brought to the Punjab, 

 Cashmere, and even to Calcutta. It is very like M. calandra, but is considered generically 



distinct by Blyth, and named Calandrina, having a longer and less robust bill It is quite 



possible that this Lark may yet be found in the extreme North-west Provinces, it being common 

 in Afghanistan." Since that was written, Captain C. H. T. Marshall has procured a large 

 quantity of specimens near Lahore, some of which he was kind enough to give us ; and Mr. Hume 

 tells us that he has about one hundred examples in his collection from the North-west Provinces 

 of India. Dr. Henderson, in his account of the birds of Yarkand, states that only one specimen 

 was obtained during the Yarkand Expedition, which he shot on the return journey, at the foot of 

 the hills leading from Cashmere to the plains of the Punjaub. Mr. Hume, in this same work, 

 enters very minutely into the points of distinction between the present bird and M. calandra, 

 and gives the following interesting account of the species : — " The Bokhara, or Bugheira Lark, 

 as it is commonly called, swarms during the cold season all over the trans-Sutledge districts of 

 the Punjaub and North-western Rajpootana; and a certain number, which find their way further 

 down, are met with in regularly decreasing numbers as one proceeds southwards and eastwards 

 in the cis-Sutledge Punjaub, the Duab as far down as Futtehpoor, and Southern Eohilcund. 

 Dry, sandy, cultivated lands, sparingly covered with the stubble of the grain crops, the giant and 

 bull-rush millets (Holcus sorghum and Penicillaria spicata), are the places they affect. They have 

 a very loud and sweet note, and are, I can well believe, grand songsters in the nuptial season ; 

 but they leave us with the first breath of the hot wind, and breed, it is believed, in Afghanistan, 

 Bokhara, and Persia." 



In conclusion, we may remark that Mr. Blyth's name of torquata is by no means inapplicable 

 to the present bird ; for the black band is generally complete across the breast, whereas in the 

 Common Calandra there is generally a black patch on each side of the chest, which do not 

 meet across the latter. 



The figures in the Plate are taken from specimens in our own collection, with the exception 

 of the right-hand bird, which is lent to us by our friend Canon Tristram. The descriptions of 

 the birds are also from examples in our own cabinet, the adult male being a bird killed on the 

 8th of May, 1866, by Dode, in Turkestan, the young ones being from Lahore, given us by 

 Captain C. H. T. Marshall, who has done good service towards elucidating the ornithology of 

 the Punjaub, as Mr. Hume's pages will show. 



