Mediterranean Short-toed Lark
Alaudala rufescens (Vieillot, 1819)
Photo © Kris Webb
STATUS
Southern Eurasia and northern Africa. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally during the period covered (BOU 1971). Formerly known as Lesser Short-toed Lark but now split into two full species, the other being the Turkestan Short-toed Lark.
NOT PROVEN
0). 1873 Sussex Near Brighton, caught, 15th November.
(G. D. Rowley, Field 22nd Nov., 1873: 528; Borrer, 1891 N. B. Kinnear, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 46: 123).
[Walpole-Bond, 1938; Not in BOU, 1971; Palmer, 2000; A. H. J. Harrop, British Birds 112: 89-98].
History George Dawson Rowley (1873) in The Field of 22nd Nov., Vol. XLII. p. 528, and (1874) in The Zoologist, 2nd series, Vol. IX. p. 3832, says: 'On Saturday the 15th November, a Short-toed Lark (Alauda brachydactyla, Leister) was taken in a net outside Brighton, and brought alive to Mr. Swaysland, who sent it up to me. The bird he says, is a male. On looking into my notes, I find two others have been seen here, - September 26, 1854, and April 1858. The last was shot whilst dusting itself in a road, very near the spot where the present example appeared. Curiously enough, the man saw this example about, and went on purpose to catch him.'
[This is only the sixth recorded occurrence of the Short-toed Lark in the British Islands, all of which, with one exception, were captured in the south of England; the exception occurred at Shrewsbury. - Ed., Field.]
Borrer (1891: 117) under 'Short-toed Lark', says: 'No other is recorded until November 1874, when a third was caught in a net, close to the same place, and brought alive to Mr. Swaysland, who sent it, still living, to Mr. Rowley. Of the habits of this bird I can say nothing from my own knowledge.'
N. B. Kinnear, Editor (1926) in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, Vol. XLVI. p. 123, at the 302nd Meeting of the Club held on 9th June 1926 at Pagani's Restaurant, London, says: 'Mr. A. F. Griffith also exhibited two birds from the Booth Museum at Brighton which had been recently identified by Dr. Hartert as follows: - Calandrella minor kukunoorensis (Przew), female. Lesser Short-toed Lark. Only three other specimens of this rare form are known to exist in England, all males - two in the British Museum and one at Tring.
This bird was taken by a bird-catcher near Brighton in November 1874 and brought to Swaysland, the Brighton bird-stuffer, by whom it was sold to Mr. Monk, on whose death it was acquired, with the rest of his collection, for the Booth Museum. It is recorded in Borrer's Birds of Sussex, p. 113. Until recently this specimen was assumed to be Calandrella brachydactyla, but the late Mr. M. J. Nicol, in May 1919, noticed that it was not that species, but a form of Calandrella minor, a new bird to the British List, and asked that it should be compared and recorded. A new edition of the Illustrated Catalogue of the Collection was commenced in 1914, but stopped by the War, was taken in hand again last year. Thus it was not till February last that the bird was submitted to Dr. Hartert.'
Walpole-Bond (1938 (1): 181-182) placed the record in square brackets.
Comment Swaysland, taxidermist, Brighton, has been discredited (A. H. J. Harrop, British Birds 112: 89-98).
