r.IRDS OF THE BUFFALO BASIN 229 



But the Tiptol lias loug ere this found out how much 

 more daintily he can fare by attending on man, and dur- 

 ing the fruit-season he gorges himself on apples and figs, 

 and in the autumn months he occasionally takes toll of 

 the growing mealies. He varies his fruit-diet with in- 

 sectSj watching from a perch and sallying out to effect 

 a capture and returning to the same perch, or another. 



By the beginning of October the birds are paired, but 

 my earliest date for the nest is Xovember 27. Xesting 

 goes on till the beginning of April. The nest, built in 

 a tree, is a shallow cup of rough grass blades with some 

 moss and is thickly lined with Galopina seeding-sprays. 

 The internal measurements are SO millimetres by 25. 



The eggs, two or three in number, measure from 24 

 to 25.5 mm. by 17. They are cream-coloured with inde- 

 fined markings of purplish-brown and steely-grey pro- 

 fusely covering the ground colour and tending to be of 

 a more blotchy nature in a zone at the larger end. 



Red-capped Lark — Calandrella cinered (Gm.) — Es- 

 sentially a bird of the open country, the Red-capped 

 Lark abounds on the treeless tracts throughout our area. 

 It is especially abundant on the flats along the base of^ 

 the mountains, but also frequents suitable spots above 

 the forest ; it delights in dusty highways where it splashes 

 about, as if bathing, in the dust. Unlike the Rufous- 

 naped Lark, it rarely settles on an elevation higher than 

 a termite-heap, though it occasionally perches on the 

 top of a mealie-stalk or a Kafir-corn stalk, and once one 

 of these birds alighted on the roof of a Kafir hut near 

 which I was standing and ran across the thatch. Where 

 both larks are present, this species is much more abund- 

 ant than its relative; it is also exceedingly confiding, 

 sometimes barely moving out of the way of a horseman, 

 at other times running smartly along in front of him 

 refusing to take wing until compelled. 



The Red-capped Lark is a winter songster, its period 

 of song ranging from 26 May to September 24. Generally 



