BIFASCIATKD LARK. 
181 
Liniversally distributed throughout the whole of the 
true desert. Unlike its congeners it seems to be a 
most solitary bird, and seldom, except in the breeding- 
season, have I seen two together. But a day rarely 
occurred when we did not obtain a few specimens on 
the march; and indeed this game formed our principal 
and favourite animal food. Although its uniform of 
inconspicuous drab renders it most difficult of detection 
on the ground, its restless habits soon attract attention. 
The moment it extends its wings the broad black bar 
across the snow-white secondaries attracts the eye, and 
renders it an easy mark. At first sight it reminded 
me much of a Plover, in the manner in Avhich it rose 
and scudded away. Indeed there is nothing of the 
Lark in its flight, except in early morning, Avhen I 
have watched it rise perpendicularly to some elevation, 
and then drop suddenly, repeating these gambols unin- 
terruptedly, over exactly the same spot for nearly an 
hour, accompanying itself by a loud whistling song. It 
runs with great rapidity, and it requires no little spread 
of foot to capture a broken-winged victim. In the 
stomach of those I opened I found small coleoptera, 
sand-flies, and hard seeds. 
There is something very graceful in all its movements, 
and the distinct markings of its wings, and the expansion 
of its long black tail, render it really a beautiful bird 
when flying. 
The egg is very large — twelve lines by eight; the 
ground colour like that of C. duponti, but the brown 
blotches smaller, and far more closely distributed, es- 
pecially towards the broader end. It would not be 
easy to select it out of a series of some varieties of 
Lanius excuhitor.’’’ 
Mr. Tristram has described in the same paper another 
