Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/451

 additional variety of the Malacca Grosbeak, near which undoubtedly it should be placed: but he afterwards suggests the idea of its being new, in which opinion I fully coincide.

No. 56. Alauda Desertorum. Desert Lark.

Length about eight inches. The bill one inch long, and of a pale horn colour, bent about the tip, but not so much as in the African lark. The general colour of the plumage partakes of a greyish sandy brown, so that, when on the ground in its native deserts, the bird is with the utmost difficulty to be distinguished. About the eyes, the chin, and throat, the feathers are whitish, as are also the lower part of the belly, vent, thighs, under wing coverts, base of the prime, and tips of the secondary quills. On the belly and vent there is a slight shade of cream colour; and across the upper part of the breast is a kind of band of a much lighter shade than the back, narrowly dashed down the shafts with brown. The scapulars and upper wing coverts, are of a light dusky brown, edged and tipped with sandy white; the two outer of the primary quills being dusky, and the third, for near an inch from the base, margined on the outer web with whitish, and having a large white spot on the inner web. The rest are white across both webs at the base, and the last is deeply margined all round the tip, but principally on the inner web, with brownish white: the two first quills are of a much lighter dusky than the others. The secondaries are dark dusky, white at the base, margined outwardly and deeply tipped on both webs, so as to form two bars across that part of the wing when it is spread, which appear like small spots when the wings are closed. The two middle feathers of the tail are of a very light dusky brown, deeply margined with the same sandy colour as the back. The rest are of a dark dusky tinge, the exterior web of the outermost feather being almost white. The legs and feet are of a very pale yellowish white: and the legs, particularly, partake very much of a calcined look. The claws are of a pale horn colour, and the hind one is rather short, strong, and slightly bent, with the end whitish."

I have greatly to regret that occupations of a more serious nature prevented his Lordship from completing his list: but, he has favoured me with drawings of No. 55, which I conceive to belong to a new genus. I have given it the name of Erodia amphilensis. At the time we first saw this bird at Amphila, it struck us all as a very uncommon one, being perfectly unlike any other we had seen before. With this I shall conclude my remarks respecting the birds of Abyssinia.

The only insect which I have thought particularly worthy of notice is the Abyssinian locust, as I understand from one of our best informed naturalists that some doubts have been lately expressed respecting the destructive powers of this insect by a celebrated foreign traveller. I can, however, positively state from my own information, as well as of many persons with whom I conversed, that the one here represented is the only species of insect which