THE INDIAN SKY-LARK. 373 
Family ALAUDIDiE. 
Genus ALAUDA, Linn. 
348. ALAUDA GULGULA. 
THE INDIAN SKY-LARK. 
Alauda gulgula, Franldin, P. Z. 8. 1831, p. 119 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 434 ; Hume ^ 
Henders. Lah. to Yark. p. 269, pi. xxix. ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p, 486 ; Bl. B. 
Burm. p. 95 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 337 ; Oates, S. F. v. p. 163 ; Anders. Yunnan 
Fxped. p. 606 ; Hume Dav. 8. F. vi. p. 409 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 630 ; 
Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 109 ; 8cully, 8. F. viii. p. 338 ; Hume, 8. F. ix. p. 355 
(footnote) ; Oates, 8. F. x. p. 234. Alauda peguensis, Oates, 8. F. iii. p. 342. 
Alauda arvensis (i.), David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 312. 
Description. — Male and female. Upper plumage and wing-coverts dark 
brown, each feather broadly edged with fulvous ; a pale supercilium from 
the nostrils to the end of the ear-coverts ; ear-coverts streaked brown and 
fulvous ; lower plumage pale fulvous, the cheeks and throat slightly spotted 
with brown, the breast boldly streaked with dark brown, the sides of the 
body indistinctly striped with paler brown ; wings brown, edged with 
fulvous and with a tinge of rufous near the base of some of the quills ; 
tail brown edged with fulvous, the penultimate feathers almost entirely 
fulvous on the outer web, the external pair all fulvous except the base of 
the inner web, which is brown. 
Mouth yellowish ; upper mandible dark horn ; lower mandible pinkish 
fleshy, dusky at the tip ; iris brown ; eyelids plumbeous ; legs fleshy 
brown ; claws pale horn-colour. 
Length 6*5 inches, tail 2*3, wing 3*4, tarsus 1, bill from gape '75. The 
female is of about the same size. 
The Indian Sky-Lark difl'ers from its European representative chiefly in 
being smaller. The Sky-Larks are subject to great variation in size, and 
have been much subdivided into species. Mr. Swinhoe gives five species 
from China : — A. cantarella, A. ccelivox, A. sala, A. wattersi, and 
A. afvensis, which latter bird is A. gulgula. A. dulcivox from the 
Himalayas is another doubtfully distinct race ; and there are others. 
Having only one Sky-Lark to deal with in this work, I think it well 
to retain for it the distinctive appellation of A. gulgula. Had I to deal 
with the birds of a larger tract of country, I should be inclined to unite 
all the above so-called species under one name. 
The Indian Sky-Lark is said by Mr. Blyth to occur in Arrakan. I found 
