Check List of the Birds of South Africa. 375 



131. CERTHILAUDA SEMITOEQUATA Smith. 



Shelley and Eeichenow both place this species in the genus 

 Certhilauda, a position to which its long bill undoubtedly en- 

 titles it. 



132. MIEAFBA NIVOSA (Swains.). 



The bill in this species is not sufficiently elongated to entitle it to 

 a position in the genus Certhilauda; it should be, following Shelley 

 and Eeichenow, relegated to Mirafra. 



134. CERTHILAUDA ALBOFASCIATA Lafr. 



The description of Anthus rufulus, given by Vieillot, does not 

 apply to this bird, but to the Indian Pipit. The oldest name, 

 therefore, is Certhilauda albofasciata of Lafresne, published in 

 1836. 



Eeichenow (Vog. Afr. iii. p. 354) distinguishes a much paler 

 form of this species from German South-west Africa, under the 

 name of C. albofasciata arenaria. 



142. ANTHUS BRACHYUBUS Sund. 

 142A. ANTHUS CAFFER Sund. 



Shelley (B. Afr. ii. p. 301) separates the Short-tailed Pipit of the 

 Transvaal and Swaziland from that of Natal and Zululand, and 

 identifies the former with Anthus calthropcs of Layard. This latter 

 w y as described from a caged bird in Mr. Layard's possession, which, 

 he states, came from Sw 7 artland, the old name for the Malmesbury 

 district, near Cape Town, and not from Swaziland, as stated by 

 Shelley. As the type of A. calthropcs, is no longer to be found, it is 

 difficult, if not impossible, to settle what species it is identical with. 

 Eeichenow (Vog. Afr. iii. p. 313) identifies this same bird (i.e., the 

 Short-tailed Pipit of the Transvaal) with Anthus caffer, of Sunde- 

 vall, the type of which (now in the Berlin Museum) he has examined ; 

 the type locality is the Upper Limpopo, in what is now the Eusten- 

 burg district of the Transvaal. Anthus caffer closely resembles A. 

 brachyurus, but is somewhat larger ; it is lighter coloured above, and 

 has narrower black median streaks on the feathers ; the wdng 

 measures about 2 % 75, as against 2-5 to 2-6. 



143A. ANTHUS VAALENSIS Shelley. 



Captain Shelley (B. Afr. ii. p. 311) describes a new Pipit, 

 A. raalensis, which is very similar in size, form, and colouring to 



