AMMOMANES.
Desert Larks : plumage soft, almost without spots.
Ammomanes deserti deserti (Lichtenstein).
d 9 Above variable ; sandy brown to brownish grey, redder 'on rump ; upper tail coverts and margins of tail feathers, basal parts of outer webs and inner webs of quills cinnamon buff ; beneath pale isabelline ; throat white with faint dark marks ; under wing coverts and axillaries cinnamon buff ; secondaries nearly all the same length ; 2nd primary much shorter than 3rd. Bill horn brown above, whitish below. Legs and feet light brown. Wing 8 99-103.5, y 91-99. Tarsus 22-23. Bill 13-15.5 (H.). Young more yellowish above than adult and paler below, without any spots. All plumages are greyer when fresh and more rufous when worn.
Resident—Egypt and Nile Valley, from Luxor southward ; occasional Cairo.
A. deserti algeriensis Sharpe. Above more reddish isabelline than typical form.
Resident.—Algeria and Tunisia south of Atlas, east through Tripoli and Libya to Lower Nile Valley north of Luxor.
A. deserti isabellina Temminck. Not so red as "algeriensis,"
rather redder than most " deserti." Resident.—Lower Egypt east of Nile and upper Egypt south of Wadi Halfa.
A. deserti whitakeri Hartert. Above grey brown ; beneath sandy buff with obscure dark streaks, throat white with dark spots, under wing coverts and axillaries darker than in "deserti." Wing 104-106, ? 97-100. Bill 18-20•5 (H.).
Resident.—Djebel-Soda, Tripoli.
Ammomanes phcenicura arenicolor (Sundevall).
Like a small "A. d. algeriensis," but redder ; primaries pale cinnamon on both webs and black tipped, 2nd almost as long as 3rd ; secondaries pale cinnamon, inner much longer than outer ; tail feathers tipped black. Wing 92-97. Tarsus 21-23. Bill 11-1 1.5 (H.).
Resident.—Algerian Sahara (stony plains) east to Egypt (Nile Valley) and Palestine.
The typical form "A. p. phcenicura " is an Indian bird. Species is distinguishable from "A. deserti" by its long inner secondaries.