Alauda wattersi Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1871), 389; McGregor
and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 103.
Alauda gulgula Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1890), 13, 575
(part); Grant and Whitehead, Ibis (1898), 244 (eggs); Whitehead,
Ibis (1899), 243 (nest).
Bohol (Everett, McGregor); Luzon (Möllendorff, Whitehead, McGregor,
Bartsch); Sibuyan (McGregor); Ticao (McGregor). Formosa and
the Pescadores.
Adult.--Upper parts blackish brown, streaked with ochraceous-buff;
lores and superciliary stripe from bill to nape pale buff or whitish;
ear-coverts dusky; malar region and sides of throat marked with small
blackish spots; under parts white; chest buff with short blackish
shaft-lines; sides and flanks buff, the latter obscurely streaked
with dark brown; wing-feathers and rectrices dark brown, edged with
cream-buff or ruddy buff; outermost pair of rectrices entirely white;
the next pair with their outer webs white.
In freshly molted individuals the feathers of upper parts are rounded
at the ends and fringed with white, producing a squamate appearance,
which disappears as the plumage becomes worn; feathers of occiput
somewhat lengthened forming a crest, and the feathers of sides of
nape forming short ear-tufts.
A male in fresh plumage measures: Length, 150; wing, 85; tail, 54;
culmen from base, 15; depth of bill at nostril, 5; tarsus, 23; hind
toe with claw, 24. A female in worn plumage measures: Wing, 81; tail,
48; culmen from base, 13; depth of bill at nostril, 5; tarsus, 23;
hind toe with claw, 22.
This species is very similar to the European skylark from which it
is distinguished by its much smaller size.
Three eggs of the Formosan skylark from Isabela Province, Luzon,
collected by Whitehead on May 25, 1894, are thus described:
"Shape ovate. Ground-color very pale greenish white, variously
mottled and spotted with pale french-gray under-markings and brown
upper-markings. In one egg the markings are chiefly concentrated into
a zone round the middle of the shell; in the other two they are pretty
equally scattered over the whole shell. Measurements 21 mm. by 16 mm."
A set of two eggs is "Much like the above and equally spotted all over,
but the over-markings are of a more yellowish brown. Measurements 22
mm. by 15 mm.
"This lark was nesting in an open bit of country thinly covered
with tufts of grass, beneath which the nests were concealed. Fully
fledged young birds of this species were also observed on the same
date." (Grant and Whitehead.)
Genus MIRAFRA Horsfield, 1821.
Bill very stout, almost finch-like, its depth at nostril almost as
great as its length from nostril and equal to about two-thirds of the
hind claw; nostrils exposed; rictal bristles short; tertials shorter
than secondaries; first primary equal to one-third of the second, the
latter about equal to the third, fourth, and fifth; hallux slightly
shorter than its claw.