274 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ALAUDA BRACHYDACTYLA. 

 SHORT-TOED LARK. 



(Plate 15.) 



Alauda brachydaotyla, Leisl. Wett. Annul, iii. p. 357 (1809) ; et auctorum pluri- 

 morum — Temminck, Naumann, {Salvadori), Degland ^ Gerbe, (^Newton), 

 (Dresser), &c. 



Alauda arenaria, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. i. p. 343 (1816). 



Alauda testacea, StepJi. Shaw's Gen. Zoul. x. p. 521 (1817). 



Alauda calandreUa, Bonelli,fide Sam, Orn. Tosc. ii. p. 67 (1829). 



Melauocorypha braohydactyla (Leisl.'), Brehm,Vog. Deutschl. p. 311 (1831). 



Emberiza baghaira, Franklin, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 119. 



Alauda dukhunensis, Sykes, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1832, p. 93. 



Emberiza olivacea, Tickell, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1833, p. 578. 



Alauda kollyi, Temm. Man. SOrn. iii. p. 202 (1835). 



Melanocorypba arenaria (Vieill.), Bonap. Cvmp. List B. Eur. Sf N. Amer. p. 38 

 (1838). 



Pbileremos brachydactyla (Leisl.), Keys. u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. xxxvii (1840). 



Phileremos kollyi (Temm.), Keys. u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. xxxvii (1840). 



PMleremos moreatica, Von der Miihle, Orn. Griechenl. p. 38 (1844). 



Oalandritis bracbydaotyla (Leisl.), Cab. Mus. Ilein. i. p. 122 (1850). 



Calandritia kollyi (Temm.), Cab. Mus. Hein. i. p. 123 (1850). 



Melanocorypba macroptera, Brehm, Journ. Orn. 1854, p. 77. 



Calandrella bermonensis, Tristram, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 484. 



Oalandritis macroptera (Brehm), Heugl. Orn. N.O.-Afr. p. 695 (1871). 



The Short-toed Lark has occurred at least half a dozen times in our 

 islands. The earliest record is that o£ a hird caught in a net near Shrews- 

 bury on the 25th of October, 1841 (Yarrell, Hist. Brit. Birds, i. p. 488). 

 Two examples were afterwards obtained- near Brighton, one about 

 September 1854, and the other in April 1858 (Dawson Rowley, ' Ibis,' 

 1859, p. 330). A fourth specimen was shot on the Scilly Islands on the 

 23rd of September, 1854 (Rodd, ' Zoologist,' 1854, p. 4477) ; and a fifth 

 was caught in a net near Southampton about the close of the year 1861, 

 its captor asserting that he had caught a similar bird ten years previously 

 (Pemberton Bartlett, 'Zoologist,' 1862, p. 7930). The most recent 

 instance of the occurrence of this bird in England is that of one caught 

 near Cambridge in the middle of November, 1882 (Harting, 'Zoologist,' 

 1883, p. 33). It has never been recorded from Scotland or Ireland, nor 

 has it been known to visit the Channel Islands. 



The Short-toed Lark is a summer visitor to the south of Prance ; but in 

 Spain and Portugal it is a resident. It is a summer visitor to Italy, 

 Turkey, Greece, Asia Minor, and South Russia, occasionally occurring in 



