C A L A N D R E L L A B R A C H Y D A C T Y L A .
CALANDRELLA BRACHYDACTYLA.
Short-toed Lark.
Alauda brachydactyla, Leisl. Ann. d. Wetter. Gesell., tom. iii. p. 357, tab. 19*
- arenaria, VieilL Faun. Franc ., p. 169, tab. 74. figs. 1, 2.
pispoletta, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-Asiat, tom. i. p. 526.
calandrella (Bonap.), Savi, Oro. Tose., torn. ii. p. 67.
Melanocorypha itala, Brfehm, Yög. Deutsch!*, p. 311.
~ - brachydactyla, Brehm, Vög. Deutschl., p. 311.
____________ arenaria, Bonap. Geog. & Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Arner., p. 38.
Calandrella brachydactyla, Kaup, Naturi. Syst., p. 89.
Phileremos brachydactyla, Keys, und Bias. Wirbelth. Eur., p. 37.
T h a t a species o f Larlc so common on the continent of Europe, and so abundant in all eastern countries,
from Palestine to China, as the Calcndrclla brachydactyla should have been taken in the British Islands need not
excite surprise ; we ought rather to be astonished that, instead of having been met with only once, it has
n ot been more frequently seen ; indeed, when we remember the extent o f our island, and how few are the real
observers o f our native birds, we may very reasonably suppose that many other examples have, from time to
time, visited us without their ditfercnces from the other members o f the family having been detected. " At
the end o f October 1841,” says Mr. Yarrell, “ I received a letter from Mr. H . Shaw, o f Shrewsbury, informing
me th a t an example o f the Short-toed Lark had been caught in a net near that town on the 2 5 th o f the same
month i and shortly afterwards be very obligingly sent the specimen up to me for my examination.
“ This species, having some resemblance to our Wood-Lark, is yet immediately to be distinguished from it by
Us stouter beak,’ its nearly plain unspotted breast, and its very short hind toes and c law s-from which last
peculiarities it has received its name. The whole length of the Shrewsbury specimen was five inches and
three quarters; the tarsal bone three quarters o f an inch ; the hind toe half an inch, the claw o f it only one
quarter of an inch ; the wing, from the carpal joint to the end o f the longest quill-fealher, three inches and
a h alf; the second quill-feather the longest in the wing, the first and third feathers a little sh o rte r; the tertials
extend backwards as far as the end o f the closed wing.”
As I have never had an opportunity o f becoming personally observant o f the habits of the Short-toed Lark,
I must, in order to make my readers acquainted with them, draw somewhat largely upon the writings of
others; and this, with dne acknowledgment, I accordingly shall do.
Temminck states that is very abundant in Sicily, in the kingdom o f Naples, in Spain, and in Italy, and
th at it is equally numerous in the central parts o f France, and along the shores of the Mediterranean but
not in the north of France nor in Holland; Builly that it is found in Piedmont, but not in Savoy. Polydore
Roux includes it in the birds of Provence; and Brehm in those o f Germany, which appears to be the
boundary o f its range northwards. Temminck further states that it migrates to the continent o f Africa; and
Loclie informs us that it is found over the whole o f Algeria. Mr. Salvin remarks that in the E astern Atlas it is
.. m„ch more local in its distribution than the Crested Lark IGaterila crhtatd), its range being confined to
a few favoured spots in the elevated plain,. About Ain Beida it is abundant, and throughout the great
plain o f El Th a rf it may be commonly met with ; it also occurs in the neighbourhood of Djcndch Like the
rest o f its congeners, it places its nest on the sheltered side of a b u s h - th e scrubby vegetation which clothes
the whole o f that arid district affording the necessary protection for its offspring. The eggs o f this spec.es
vary very much ; even in the same nest hardly two similar ones are to be found. So different were some of
the varieties, that the greatest care was requisite in identifying their true parentage.” In his notes ■ On the
Ornithology of Northern Africa,' the Rev. H. B. Tristram s a y s . - " Many flocks occur ... winter in be
neighbourhood o f the oases, and on. the northern limits of the Sahara. It breeds abundantly under the
slopes of the Atlas, but not, so far as I an. aware, in the Desert. I . is extremely local m, the cho,. o f its
breeding-places. Confined to the barren salt-plains in the steppes on the verge o f the Desert, where the
vegetation is very scanty, its nest seems to be invariably placed under the lee o f a thyme-bush, in a depression
much deeper than the nests of other Larks. n fl , . . . t i
Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor say, that in Egypt, where it ,s mostly met with ,o small flocks, it . not to he
seen before March. Mr. Chambers shot it in Tripoli, and Mr. C. F. Tyrwhi.t Drake observed on the
nlaius of Tan trier and Eastern Morocco. , ,
Dr Henry Giglioli, in his account of the birds observed by him in the neighbourhood of Pisa, mentions
that " in spring large flocks appear, especially along the sca-shore, near the Gombo.
i i i i i i y a ?