Crested Lark (Galerida cristata) - HBW 9, p. 595

Taxonomy: Alauda cristata Linnaeus, 1758, Europe = Vienna, Austria.
Subspecific taxonomy extremely complex, with over 60 races described across species’ huge range, seemingly a result of its mostly sedentary habits, and strong correlation of plumage ground colour and intensity of streaking with environmental factors (mainly soil colour, perhaps also general conditions of aridity and amount of sunshine); even within range of a given race, highly localized populations showing quite different colour, related to aberrantly coloured local soils, occur (e.g. within range of olive-grey apuliae in S Italy, ash-grey birds from E Calabria named as “heraelaciniae”); also well-marked variation, tending to be clinal, in body size, wing length and, especially, bill length. In general, differences among races slight and often noticeable only if large series of skins in fresh plumage compared, as many taxa described on basis of small number of specimes, sometimes variably abraded; intergradation also evident, both in Palearctic and in Afrotropics. Birds from NW Spain sometimes attributed to nominate race. Several attempts at “lumping” undertaken, in some cases reducing number of races to just 20, but results seem often too arbitrary, and perhaps preferable to recognize described races unless very compelling reasons exist to merge them with others. Geographical areas of especial difficulty, where several races meet and establishment of neat frontiers among them appears impossible, include Morocco, Nile Valley, Near East and Asia Minor. Thorough review needed. Besides listed races, others described include madaraszi from S Croatia (Dalmatia) and muehlii from Greece, both included in meridionalis; moltschanowi from Crimea, in tenuirostris; ioniae from W Asia Minor (Izmir region), magdae from S Caspian region and submagna from Transcaspia, all in caucasica; weigoldi and ankarae from Asia Minor, in subtaurica; retrusa from N China (Gansu) and alaschanica from Inner Mongolia (Alxa), in magna; vamberyi from Kara Kum Desert (Turkmenistan), in iwanowi; gafsae, whitakeri and deprimozi from Tunisia, all in arenicola; deltae from Nile Delta, in nigricans; imami from Yemen and thomsi from N Oman (Muscat), in tardinata; moeritica from N Egypt (Faiyum), in maculata; caroli from Egypt, nubica from Ethiopia and eritreae from Eritrea, all in altirostris; and courtoti from W Chad and zalingei from W Sudan, both in alexanderi. Thirty-seven subspecies provisionally recognized.