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vated and on uncultivated ground. They stay over the year and make their nests on the ground. 

 The natives admire their song ; and a great many are taken when young and kept in cages. 

 During the storm of February 1871 a large number of these birds were shot; at least two thirds 

 of them were males." Professor von Nordmann gives the following account of the distribution 

 of the species in Southern Russia : — " It is a true inhabitant of the steppes, never visiting the 

 mountainous districts, and is therefore not found in the southern part of the Crimea and in the 

 provinces to the east of the Black Sea, where there are very scanty plains. In Bessarabia and 

 New Russia there are innumerable quantities of these Larks, and in the autumn and spring, 

 when they are in flocks, they are sold by sixties in the Odessa market." Badde also writes that 

 they remain in Southern Russia all the year round. In the Crimea Messrs. Elwes and Buckley 

 found it very common near Sevastopol; and Major Irby, who was present in the locality during 

 the Crimean war, says that it was common and resident there; he also procured its eggs. 

 Specimens are often received through Mr. Moeschler from the Volga ; and Pastor Brehm named 

 the bird from this locality M. semitorquata ; like the other species of this author it has not been 

 since recognized as distinct. Dr. von Middendorff procured a single example between Krasno- 

 yarsk and Irkutsk, on the highroad, in April; but his specimen differed considerably from the 

 general type of the European bird. Dr. Cabanis questions whether von Middendorff's bird may 

 not be his M. alboterminata, which we consider to be the same as M. bimaculata (Menetr.). We 

 think this most probable ; indeed, as we have stated beforehand, many of the eastern birds 

 recorded as M. calandra will require re-examination. 



At Erzeroom it is stated to have been found by Mr. Keith E. Abbott ; and the late Mr. 

 Strickland says that it arrived during the cold weather at Smyrna. Russell also recorded it from 

 Aleppo many years ago. Dr. Tristram, writing of the Larks to be met with in Palestine, says, 

 "The most abundant of all was perhaps the large Calandra Lark, Melanocoryplia calandra (L.), 

 a partial migrant, and wintering in the desert and southern wilderness, but breeding in the corn- 

 plains and in the north, especially under Hermon. It appears that there are two races of this 

 bird : — one lai'ger and darker in plumage, which breeds in the corn-plains, identical with the 

 Calandra of Algeria ; the other smaller and more rufous, sometimes almost russet, which remains 

 all winter near Damascus, and breeds in the uplands." Thanks to Dr. Tristram, we have been 

 able to examine the last-mentioned specimens ; and we believe that these also are referable to 

 M. bimaculata. Next as regards the occurrence of the Calandra in Egypt. Riippell states that 

 he found it common in winter in Nubia and Egypt ; but doubtless M. bimaculata is here again 

 intended. " The true M. calandra" Dr. von Heuglin says, " I found only on one occasion, in 

 March, in company with Crested Larks and Wagtails on the shore of a lagoon near Alexandria, 

 where a pair rambled shyly about a freshly ploughed field ; and again in November, on the road 

 between Cairo and Suez. Hemprich and Ehrenberg procured it in Arabia Petrsea and Hedjas." 

 Neither Captain Shelley nor Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor has ever met with it. The latter gentle- 

 man writes to us : — " This Lark I have always found to be conspicuous by its absence from the 

 avifauna of Egypt, which is the more remarkable as it is a common species both in the Pashalic 

 of Tunis and in Syria, Egypt being situated about midway between those two countries." 



In Tunis Lord Lilford says he found it common in November and December. In Malta 

 Mr. C. A. Wright says it is " abundant in flocks in October, when great numbers are taken in 



