THE BENGAL BUSH-LAHK. 
375 
tinge^ the tip dusky, the gape yellowish ; iris brown ; eyelids plumbeous ; 
mouth flesh-colour. 
Length 5*4 inches, tail 1*8, wing 3'1, tarsus '75, bill from gape '6. 
The Indian Sand-Lark is confined in British Burmah to the sand- 
banks of the Irrawaddy river between Prome and the frontier. 
It extends up the Irrawaddy valley, and occurs in Assam, Bengal and 
Northern India. ' 
I observed this Lark in the Irrawaddy near Thayetmyo, where it was 
common. It runs along the edges of the sand-banks very swiftly, feeding 
on the minute insects which lie at the water^s edge. Dr. Jerdon found 
them feeding on the roads at Thayetmyo when the river was at high flood. 
It probably breeds in April; but I have not been able to find the nest. In 
India it makes a slight saucer-like nest of grass in a hollow under shelter 
of a tuft of grass or small bush, and lays two or three eggs, which are grey 
marked with yellowish brown. This Lark does not soar in the air, and I 
do not remember to have ever heard it sing. 
Genus MIRAFRA, Horsf. 
350. MIRAFRA ASSAMICA. 
THE BENGAL BUSH-LARK. 
Mirafra assamica, McClell. P. Z. S. 1839, p. 102 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 416 ; Hume, 
Nests and Eggs, p. 473 ; Ball, S. F. ii. p. 421 ; Bl. B. Btirm. p. 95 ; Anders. 
Yunnan Exped. p. 606; Cripps, S.F. vii. p. 294 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p, 108. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole upper plumage ashy brown, 
each feather with a large dark-brown streak in the centre ; the streaks on 
the rump and upper tail-coverts smaller and less conspicuous ; wing-coverts 
brown, edged with pale rufous-white ; quills brown, the outer webs of the 
primaries chiefly deep ferruginous, those of the secondaries edged with 
paler rufous, and the tertiaries edged on both webs wdth rufous-white; 
the inner webs of all the quills ferruginous as seen from below ; tail brown, 
edged with fulvous-brown ; a pale fulvous supercilium ; lores, ear-coverts 
and cheeks mingled brown and pale fulvous ; chin and throat white ; lower 
plumage fulvescent, with dark brown streaks on the breast. 
Bill dusky above, fleshy whitish beneath ; legs pale fleshy brown ; irides 
hazel-brown. [Jerdon.) 
Length about 5*5 inches, tail 2*1, wing 3*3, tarsus -95, bill from gape '75, 
hind claw '5 to '6. The female is of the same size. 
