307 



Mirafra secunda. 



RUFOUS-WINGED BUSH LARK. 

 Mirafra horsjieldi (part), Gould, Handbk. Bds. Auatr., Vol. I., p. 404 (186.5). 

 Mirafra secunda, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XIII., p. 603 (1890); Hartert, Nov. Zool., 



Vol. XII,, pp. 236-237 (1905). 

 Mirafra horsfiddi (non Gould), North, Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A., Vol. XXII., p. 141 (1898). 



Adult mALE—Similar to Mirafra horsfieldi, Gould, but sliyhthj darker, with a larger amount 

 of rufous on the wing, the lesser and medium upper wing coverts being entirely rufous. Total length 

 5-2 inches, wing 2-85 tail 1-9, bill 0^2, tarsus OTo. 



Adult female— SimiZoJ- in plumage to the male, but smaller. Wing '2-05 inches. 

 Distribution— Uorih-w^estexn Australia, South Australia, Central Australia. 

 /T^HIS is a close ally of the preceding species, and was separated by Dr. R. B. Sharpe on 

 X account of the greater e.xtent of rufous on the wings, his description being taken from 

 a South Australian bird. The above measurements are those of an adult male obtained at 

 Modbury on the 22nd June, 1907, and of an adult female procured at Tea-tree Gully on the 2nd 

 July, 1207, Both of these birds were shot by Dr. W. A. Angove, and the localities are in the 

 neighbourhood of Adelaide, South Australia. With them he sent the following note :— " I am 

 sending you two skins, male and female ; they are of a much redder type than the specimen of 

 Mirafra horsfieldi you sent over. They are only found in crop or stubble lands, and they are late 

 breeders. I have the eggs of this bird, and they are practically identical with the eggs received 

 from the McDonald Ranges, Central Australia, and which you identified as those of Mirafra 

 secunda." 



From South Australia Mr. W. White sent me a set of eggs, and wrote as follows :— " Taken 

 at the Reed Beds, near Adelaide, on the 5th November, 1892. The nest was in a grass tussock 

 in a swamp, that the water had recently dried off. The nest differed from any I had seen before, 

 being partly covered on one side, resembling a child's cradle, and contained three fresh eggs." 



Dr. Ernst Hartert records in " Novitates Zoologies" '^ eleven specimens from North- 

 western Australia, under the trinominal name of Mirafra javanica seantda, and remarks :- 

 " Distinctly more sandy, paler, and not so blackish above as M. javanica horsfieldi." This apphes 

 to birds from North-western Australia, but not to specimens obtained in South Australia, which 

 are distinctly darker than examples of Mirafra horsjieldi, procured in New South Wales. Dr. 

 Hartert, also writing on the forms of Mirafra javanica, accords Mirafra mwdwardi, Milligan, 

 subspecific distinction from the former, and refers to it under the trinomical name of Mirafra 

 javanica wood-u'ardi. 



Mr F. L. Whitlock obtained both forms in the same localities, specimens of which were 

 presented to the Trustees of the Australian Museum by Mr. H. L. White, of Belltrees, Scone. 



Referrable to Mirafra secunda are the following notes made by Mr. G. A. Heartland, while a 

 member of the Calvert Exploring Expedition in North-western Australia, in 1896-7 :-" On the 

 grassy flats, which extend for some distance on each side of the Fitzroy River, these birds are 

 so numerous as to convey the idea that the head quarters of the species is in that locality. When 

 we arrived at the lagoon near the river mentioned, on November 6th, I was surprised at their 

 numbers As we passed along a constant succession of birds kept rising from the ground and 

 flyin- to the right and left of our line, but seldom went more than twenty yards before they 

 a-ain settled. It was impossible to throw a stick in any direction without disturbmg several. 

 Around the lagoon they were found in such num be rs as to remind one of Sparrows in a dr y 

 " • Nov. Zool., Vol. XII., p. 237 (1905)- 



