Dunn's Lark

SCI Name:  Eremalauda dunni
Protonym:  Calendula dunni Bull.Br.Orn.Club 14 p.82
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Alaudidae / Eremalauda
Taxonomy Code:  dunlar2
Type Locality:  Ogageh Wells, Kordofan.
Author:  Shelley
Publish Year:  1904
IUCN Status:  

DEFINITIONS

EREMALAUDA
(Alaudidae; Ϯ Dunn's Lark E. dunni) Gr. ερημια erēmia  desert; L. alauda  lark  < Celtic al  great; laud  song; "Some years ago the late Captain Shelley described (Bull. B. O. C. xiv. 1904, p. 82) a very remarkable Lark from Kordofan which he placed with some hesitation in the genus Calendula under the name C. dunni, after the original collector.  Since that date it has been obtained by Captain Angus Buchanan in the Damergu country to the north of Nigeria and by Admiral Lynes in Darfur.  Both Hartert (Nov. Zool. 1921, p. 130, and 1924, p. 42) and Lynes ('Ibis,' 1924, p. 701) hesitated as to its generic relation, and both seem agreed that it was certainly not rightly placed in Calendula, a monotypic genus with one species confined to South Africa.  Under these circumstances, and after a careful comparison of the material, it seems not unreasonable to propose a new generic name for this remarkable little Lark, and I would call it  Eremalauda, gen. nov., with type Calendula dunni Shelley.  The distinguishing characters are as follows: — Bill short, stout, and Finch-like, resembling that of Pyrrhulauda, the culmen strongly curved downwards; nostrils concealed by forwardly-growing plumelets; wing with the outer primary narrow and attenuated, about one-third the length of the second, which again is approximately equal to the 3rd and 4th; longest secondaries almost reaching the tips of the primaries; tarsus rather slender and far exceeding the length of the culmen; tail-feathers except the two centre ones blackish, the outer pair with a white external web only; general colour rufous, with darker rufous centres to the feathers not well marked; no dark lining to the wing; sexes alike.  This little Lark appears to be nearest to Pyrrhulauda, from which it differs chiefly in the absence of sexual differentiation and in the lining-colour of the wings." (W. Sclater 1926); "Eremalauda W. Sclater, Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. xlvii, pl. 28, 1926.  Type by original designation, Calendula dunni Shelley." (W. Sclater, 1930, Syst. Av. Aethiop., II, p. 328). 

dunni
Capt. Henry Nason Dunn (1864-1952) British Army surgeon, big-game hunter, collector in the Sudan, Somaliland, Ethiopia and India (“Although G. E. Shelley [1904] ...attributed Dunn’s Lark to Major W. H. Dunn, this is a misprint for Captain H. N. Dunn, correctly stated on the original specimen label” (C. S. Houston 1989) (Eremalauda).

SUBSPECIES

Dunn's Lark (African)
SCI Name: Eremalauda dunni dunni
dunni
Capt. Henry Nason Dunn (1864-1952) British Army surgeon, big-game hunter, collector in the Sudan, Somaliland, Ethiopia and India (“Although G. E. Shelley [1904] ...attributed Dunn’s Lark to Major W. H. Dunn, this is a misprint for Captain H. N. Dunn, correctly stated on the original specimen label” (C. S. Houston 1989) (Eremalauda).

Dunn's Lark (Arabian)
SCI Name: Eremalauda dunni eremodites
eremodites
Gr. ερημος erēmos  desert; δυτης dutēs  diver, plunger  < δυω duō  to dive.