182 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 
Family—ALAUDIDA:. 
THE CRESTED LARK. 
Alauda cristata, LINN. 
ESIDENT in Central and Southern Europe, its northern range extending 
up to 60° N. lat. in Russia and Sweden; North Africa, southwards to 
Senegambia and the Niger on the west coast, and from Abyssinia eastwards, 
through Arabia and India, to North China. 
To Great Britain this species appears to be a rare straggler: most examples 
have been obtained in Cornwall, one in summer and the four others in autumn 
and winter; one is said to have been caught in the Isle of Wight, and two have 
been obtained in Sussex. The statements—that one has been taken from a 
nest in the Isle of Wight, and that it has occurred in Ireland, require veri- 
fication.* It is also reported from Blackheath and Macclesfield. 
There are many slight climatic modifications of this Lark, all of which 
have been regarded either as species or subspecies. The typical form has the 
upper parts greyish brown, with darker centres to the feathers, excepting on 
the rump and upper tail-coverts, which are sandy brown; the long pointed 
crest has the centres of the feathers darker than elsewhere; the bastard 
primary is large; the tail-feathers are dark brown, with greyish margins, 
excepting the outermost feather which is pale brown with buff outer web, and 
the second feather which has a sandy buff margin to the outer web; the 
superciliary stripe is broad, extending far backwards from above the eye, and 
is buffish white; the under parts are principally buffish white, deeper on the 
flanks and thighs; sides of throat spotted with blackish brown; breast spotted 
and streaked with dark brown; flanks slightly streaked; bill brown, under 
mandible paler; feet fleshy horn brown; iris hazel. The female has a shorter 
crest, and is rather smaller than the male. The young are more rufescent 
and have blackish subterminal bars and pale buff tips to the feathers of the 
upper parts. After the autumn moult the plumage of the Crested Lark becomes 
* If all the stories respecting the nesting of birds in the Isle of Wight are to be accepted, it must be a 
very wonderful place; not only in birds but in insects it is reputed to be exceedingly rich in rarities: I once 
had a small New Zealand Moth shown to me by a man who assured me that he had caught it near Ventnor. 
