638 
PYEEHFLATJDA GEISEA. 
Males of the year are no doubt browner on the upper surface than adults, and the forehead is not albescent ; but the 
peculiarly grey appearance of the latter arises from abrasion. The moulting-time is in March and April. 
Obs. Examples kindly sent me by the Director of the Madras Museum from the neighbourhood of that place are very 
similar to our birds. A male in abraded plumage is not quite so grey as some of my specimens, and the black 
superciliary sti-oak is broader. A female is slightly darker. <S , wing 2-95 inches ; $ , wing 3'0. Another male 
measures 3‘1 in the wing. 
A female in Mr. Anderson’s collection from Euttobgim is paler above than any Ceylonese examples ; the edges of the 
feathers are grey, and the centres not so brown ; wing 3-0 inches. Two examples from “ Bengal ” in the national 
collection, male and female, measure 3*0 and 2'8 inches in the wing respectively ; the latter is very dark and the 
former of a decidedly pale type. Specimens from Northern India, and especially from Sindh, are probably, as 
a rule, paler than Southern birds. 
Allied to the present species is P. melanauchen, Cabanis,=P. affinis, Blyth, from Sindh, &c., the males of which have 
the crown and occiput black or concolorous with the eye-streak, and a broad wEite forehead. In the type mention 
is made of a blackish spot on the nape ; but it does not, according to Mr. Hume’s remarks (Str. Death. 1873, 
p. 212), always appear to be present. This species is larger in the bill and wing than P. grisea. 
Distribution. — This curiously j)lumaged and pretty little Lark was believed by Layard to be migratory ; 
this is, however, not the case, although from his remark, “ I have seen floeks careering from the direction of 
the continent when out dredging,” there seems to be a movement of the species from the continent to the 
north of the island, probably during the cool season. It is a resident in all the dry and arid portions of the 
maritime provinces of Ceylon, scarcely ever, to my knowledge, except as a straggler, extending more than about 
tw^enty miles inland. In the north of the island, and in all the islands between Jaffna and Manaar, down the 
west coast as far as the Chilaw district, and entirely round the east side to the borders of the wet region on 
the Girawa Pattu, it is a common bird ; but south of Negombo and round the south-west coast to Tangalla it is 
not found. On one occasion as I was riding up the Pass from Eambodde to Nuwara Elliya, in November 1870, 
when near the top I was astonished to see feeding quietly by the roadside a male Finch-Lark. This, I believe, 
is the only instance of its being seen at any great elevation, and the only occasion which I know of its being 
found in the interior of Ceylon ; and its occurrence at that great altitude is so remarkable that I am unable to 
come to any other conclusion than that it was driven south by the high north-east winds and stormy weather 
which were at that time prevailing. Were there diy plains in the interior of Ceylon, it would, of course, be 
found on them. 
This Finch-Lark is found all over the plains of India, from the extreme south to the foot of the Himalayas, 
except, says Jerdon, on the Malabar coast. It is particularly abundant, according to the same author, in 
Western India, Sindh, and the Punjaub; and in the North-west Provinces Mr. A. Anderson recorded it as 
common. It is found in Ramisserum Island and on the adjoining mainland. About Madras it is common; 
and the Rev. Dr. Fairbank procured it at Peria Kulam near the base of the Palanis, and which place has an 
altitude of more than 900 feet. In the Deccan it is, according to the same observer, very abundant. Mr. Ball 
found it very common in all the open parts of the CLota Nagpur, and he records it from many jjlaccs and 
districts between the Godaveri and the Ganges, including the Rajmehal hills. In Furreedpore it is “ pretty 
common but Mr. Cripps has not observed it there between the months of November and February. It does 
not extend into the countries to the eastward of the Bay of Bengal, but has, on the contrary, a westerly rano-e. 
On the plains of Sindh, Kattiawar, Guzerat, and in the Sambhur district it is found in abundance. Captain 
Butler obtained it close to Kurrachee, but did not observe it on Mount Aboo. Its extending into Arabia as 
mentioned by Jerdon, doubtless refers to the allied species P . melanauchen, which has a western distribution. 
Habits. — This sociable little Lark is fond of the barest plains and the driest ground that it can find. 
It especially frequents, therefore, the arid land surrounding the great salt-water lagoons and ‘‘ leeways ” and 
the wide estuaries and river-mouths which indent the whole of the north and east coasts of the island. I have 
often seen it on the dried-up fore-shores of the Ilambantota “ leeways,^’ or the vast sand tracts which are 
left bare in the dry season at the head of the J afiha and other lakes in the north, sitting motionless in those 
