640 
Col. R. Meinertzhagen on Birds from [Ibis, 
for females 100. Minimum wing for males 99, and for 
females 94. Culmen of males from all localities 20-22 mm. 
The outer tail-feather is very variable, birds from the 
Jordan Valley and Sinai having usually the base of the 
outer web dark, and merely a dark wedge on the proximal 
portion of the inner web. Birds from Solium usually have 
the outer tail-feather with a great deal of dark colouring on 
the inner web, but only the base of the outer web is dark ; 
but such variation is never constant in any area, and every 
degree of intermediate design is found. 
6 r. c . brachyura occurs in the lower Jordan Valley to well 
north of Jericho and at Nablus in the northern Judaean 
hills. Round both shores of the Dead Sea, throughout 
Sinai, and in southern Palestine from Ludd south. On the 
Suez Canal from Port Said to Suez, on Borollos beach 
(northern Egyptian Delta), at Mersa Matruh and Solium 
west of Alexandria, and at the Wadi Natrun. The fact that 
birds inseparable from brachyura occur in Italian Eritrea 
and at Port Sudan compel me to place Zedlitz’s name eritrece 
as a synonym of brachyura. I cannot agree with Sclater 
and Praed (‘Ibis,’ 1918, p. 607) that Port Sudan birds 
should be united with altirostris (nubica of Bianchi). 
Farther west towards Tripoli occur various races of 
Crested Larks, the only ones which might be contiguous to 
brachyura being macrorhyncha and arenicola. These races, 
which I am unable to distinguish one from the other, are 
larger than brachyura in both wing and culmen, though very 
similar in colour. 
G-alerida cristata somaliensis Bianchi. 
10 birds from sea-level at Berbera, all obtained in autumn 
and winter, appear paler than brachyura and have a thicker, 
heavier, but not longer culmen. 
6 males have wings 99-105 and culmens 19-22. 
4 females have wings 94, 95-99 and culmens 19-20'5. 
A pair in my collection from Lake Rudolf appear exactly 
similar to somaliensis : male, wing 105, culmen 18*5 ; female, 
wing 102, culmen 19. 
