BIFASCIATKD LARK, 181 



universally 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. ]3ut 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 which it rose 

 and scudded away. Indeed there is nothing of the 

 Lark in its flight, except in early morning, when 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 



