although the other characters are somewhat similar. Calandritis of Cabanis, with the same lack of first primary, has a much stouter bill. The spurious primary, more depressed bill, and differently constituted nostrils and nasal fossæ of Alauda are readily distinctive.
Eremophila alpestris.
The type of this genus is the Alauda alpestris, Linn., a well-known cosmopolitan species, though the birds of the New World have been distinguished under distinctive names, as cornuta, chrysolæma, peregrina, etc. The examination and critical comparison of more than a hundred specimens from all parts of North America, however, has convinced us of the identity with alpestris of the several forms mentioned above, though it may be advisable to retain one or more of them as geographical races.
Species and Varieties.
E. alpestris. Adult. Above pinkish-gray, varying to cinnamon, the pinkish deepest on nape and lesser wing-coverts; tail black (except two middle feathers), the outer feather edged with white. Beneath white, the sides pinkish or grayish. A frontal band and superciliary stripe, the middle of auriculars, chin, and throat varying from white to deep Naples-yellow; forepart of crown, and “ear-tufts,” a patch on lores and cheeks, and a broad crescent across the jugulum, deep black; end of auriculars ashy. Female and autumnal males, with the pattern less sharply defined, and the colors more suffused. Young. Brownish-black above, more or less mixed with clay-color, and sprinkled with whitish dots; wing-feathers all bordered with whitish. Beneath white. Markings on head and jugulum just merely indicated by dusky cloudings.
Wing (of adult male), 4.20 to 4.60; tail, 2.90 to 3.16; culmen, .60 to .65.
White frontal band, .25 to .30, wide; the black prefrontal patch, .26 to .35 wide. The pinkish above of an ashy-lilac shade.
Throat and forehead white, with only a very faint tinge of yellow; pinkish tinge above more rufous. Hab. Interior Northern Plains of the United States … var. occidentalis.
Throat and forehead pale straw-yellow, or strongly tinged with it; pinkish tinge above varying from ashy-lilacous to purplish-rufous. Hab. Northern regions of Old and New Worlds … var. alpestris.