1846.1 or Little Known Species of Birds. 41 



barely exceeding a quarter of an inch.* Irides very dark brown ; bill 

 whitish, with a slight tinge of dusky above ; and legs albescent-corne- 

 ous, the toes pale dusky-brown. The young have a very whitish ap- 

 pearance, from the downy character of their feathers ; and all the usual 

 mottlings of young Larks are exhibited by them, though less conspi- 

 cuously than in most other Larks. A. raytal is not much of a mu- 

 sician ; but often ventures on short snatches of song, frequently without 

 rising from the ground, and I never saw it mount high like its musical 

 neighbour, the A. gulgula, whose habits and song closely resemble 

 those of A. arvensis : the haunts of these two species border, and 

 they may commonly be seen and heard at the same time ; but this will 

 be on the confines of each others territory. Upon ascending the river 

 Hoogly, a considerable change both in the animal and vegetable pro- 

 ductions of its banks is soon perceptible, with the change of the face of 

 the country that has been alluded to. The White Vulture (Neophron 

 percnopterus) makes its appearance, which is never seen lower down 

 upon the argillaceous or mud soil ; Buteo canescens is common ; and 

 various little insessorial birds which I have never seen near Calcutta, 

 as Malacocercus caudatus, Chrysomma sinense, Cisticoia cursitans, 

 the true British Curruca garrula, Amadina malabarica, &c, &c, abound 

 more or less ; the fauna altogether more approximating that of Hin- 

 doostan Proper, and I have no doubt that it would soon yield various 

 novelties to a diligent collector. 



Genus Certhilauda, XIII, 962. There are two closely allied species 

 of Indian Certhilauda, differing only in size : the larger of which, with 

 wing four inches long, must be the true C. chendoola, (Franklin,) des- 

 cribed to be of the size of the British Sky Lark ; while the smaller, 

 referred to C. chendoola, loc. cit., has the wing but three inches and a 

 half, or less, and the rest in proportion : the latter may now rank, 

 is C. Boysii, nobis (the Society being indebted to Captain Boys for 

 a fine specimen of the former species, which has led to its descri- 

 mination). One of them is the 'Crested Calandre Lark' of Latham, f 



*The hind-claw of this Alauda resembles that of the Certhilaudce and Pyrrhulaudce. 

 as does also its light sandy-coloured plumage ; but its other characters are those of 

 restricted Alauda. 



f Latham's ' Aggia Lark' is Alauda gulgula ; his « Finch Lark'=Mera/ra assa- 

 mica ; his ' Baag-geyra h^.x\i , =Calandrella brachydactyla ; his 'Slender Lark'= 

 Anthus malayensis ; his 'Yellow-headed Lark' can only be Budytes citreola ; and 

 his ' Wagtail Lark' is the female common Budytes. 



Q 



