1842.] Asiatic Society. 201 



moulted plumage. This species, like the last, progresses on the ground as much by hopping as by 

 running, but has a true Lark's chirrup. It is caught in immense numbers for the table. 



The next is a typical Alauda, allied to the European Wood Lark (A. arbor ea), and more from 

 a combination of collateral evidence than from the sufficiency of any description to which I have 

 access, I conclude it to be the No. 185 of Mr. Jerdon's list, referred by that naturalist to A. 

 Chendoola, Franklin, but which appears to me to be rather 



3. A. gulgula, Franklin, P. Z. S, 1831, 119. Length 6 inches to 6^ inches, by 10| to 11| inches 

 in extent ; wing from bend 3^ to 3| inches, and tail 2 to 2& inches ; bill to forehead £ inch, and to 

 gape — inch; tarse barely 1 inch, and hind-toe and claw averaging the same. Irides dark hazel. 

 Bill dusky above, the rest whitish ; and legs pale brown. Colour of the upper parts blackish 

 dusky-brown, relieved with contrasting pale fulvous lateral margins to the feathers; beneath 

 fulvescent-white, deeper and spotted or streaked with dusky-black on the breast and ear-coverts 

 partly, the remainder of the latter being suffused posteriorly with dusky : a pale streak over the 

 eye ; and the erectile coronal feathers moderately elongated : some have a rufous tinge on the 

 small upper tail-coverts, and also margining the large quills, more especially the secondaries ; 

 while the coverts are edged with grey: the tail has its outermost feather almost wholly, and the 

 penultimate on its exterior web only, fulvescent-white. As compared with the British Wood Lark 

 (and writing from memory of the latter), the general cast of colour inclines less to rufous, espe- 

 cially about the rump, the coronal feathers are less lengthened, and the eye-streak is not carried 

 round the occiput. This species is common, and during February more especially, is brought to 

 the bazaar more numerously than the Mirafra, or than any of the other species sold as Ortolans, 

 excepting the large Pipit and the Corypha.* 



4. A. gracilis, Nobis. The dimensions of this nearly accord with those of the preceding species, 

 but the shape of the living bird is considerably more slender, and the merest glance suffices to dis- 

 criminate them apart ; yet on endeavouring to describe them separately, I find the greatest difficul- 

 ty in hitting upon any one satisfactory distinction. The hind-claw is certainly longer and straighter 



13 

 in this, measuring r-% inch ; and the aspect of the plumage is different, though not adequately so 

 16 



describable : the colours of the feathers are much more cleanly defined apart, and the light hue all 

 but quite obsolete on the outer side of each scapulary and interscapulary, while in the preceding 

 species both sides are distinctly so marked (the outer, however, being darker and browner than the 

 inner side) , and the mottling is a more confused character. On examining many specimens of 

 (presumed) A. gulgula, I cannot find one in which the penultimate tail-feather is tipped on its in- 

 ner web with white ; but in this species it is distinctly so tipped for nearly \ inch, and all its whit- 

 ish or albescent is much more deeply suffused with ferruginous. I have seen but two examples 

 of this bird, the first alive in the shop of a dealer who had sold it, and the second was shot by 

 Mr. Frith, and presented in a fresh state to the Society, as noticed in my Report for January. 

 When I come to know more of its notes and habits, I shall doubtless be able to describe it more 

 satisfactorily than at present; but in the mean while lam quite satisfied of its distinctness, and 

 should never hesitate in recognising it the moment I beheld a specimen. 



Besides the above, the little Pyrrhulauda crucigera is common here, as in other parts of India, t 

 A specimen of the Mirafra alone existed in the Society's Museum at the period of my taking charge 

 of it. 



* I have since obtained the young in full-grown nestling plumage, which closely resembles the 

 corresponding garb of the British Sky Lark : the crown is very dark, with whitish edgings to the 

 feathers; eye-streak strongly marked, and carried round the occiput as in a Wood Lark ; a rufous 

 tinge to the edgings of the great wing and tail feathers : length 5§ by lOz inches in extent, wing 3£, 

 and tail Ij inches. 



t This also breeds in the vicinity of Calcutta, and the nestling plumage of the young definitively 

 refers the genus to the Alaudidce, or Lark family: it essentially resembles that of the true Larks, 

 being of a dull greyish-brown, darker and but slightly whitish-edged on the crown, scarcely at all 

 so edged on the inter-scapularies, and most broadly on the wing-coverts ; under parts dull fulvous- 

 white, with a few narrow and minute dark pectoral streaks, suffusing part of the feathers. Length 

 of the wings, with full-grown feathers, 2| inches, and of the tail 1£ inch. The nest and eggs have 

 been described by Mr. Jerdon. 



