WHITE-WINGED LAEK. 



MELANOCORYPHA LEUCOPTERA, Pallas. 



Melanocorypha leucoptera, Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso- As. i. p. 518, 



no. 147, pi. xxxiii. fig. 2 (1831). 

 Melanocorypha sibirica, Yarr. ed. 4, i. p. 642 ; Dresser, iv. 



p. 373. 



Once only has the White-winged Lark been obtained 

 in the British Isles, at Brighton on the 22nd November, 

 1869, where it was consorting with a flock of Snow- 

 Buntings. It is equally accidental in Western Europe, 

 there being only three instances on record, one of these 

 being, of course, on Heligoland. It is one of the 

 numerous species of desert or steppe Larks inhabiting 

 the plateaus of Central and Northern Asia, where it is 

 a migrant. 



First discovered by Pallas on the Irtish, scarcely any 

 further information has been added by subsequent 

 writers to the account of the Russian pioneer of 120 

 years ago. In its song and flight it resembles the 

 Sky-Lark, though with a feebler note, and, like the 

 Crested Lark, frequents roadsides. Its nest is formed 

 of grass, and placed in some slight depression in the 

 ground. 



