20 



BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Moroto district of northeastern Uganda, and through Kenya Col- 

 ony (north and east of the highlands) to northeastern Tanganyika 

 Territoiy (to the Pangani River, Usaramo, and Sigerari). It has 

 been differentiated into two races, as follows : 



1. M. h. hypermetra: Northern Tanganyika Territory north 

 through Kenya Colony to southern Somaliland, the semiarid savan- 

 nahs north of the Northern Guaso Nyiro River (exactly how far 

 n.orth not yet known), and to the Moroto country of Uganda 

 (probably Turkanaland also). 



2, M. h. gallarum: Ethiopia (Hawash Valley and Shoa). This 

 race differs from the typical one in being much grayer, less brownish 

 and less rufous above (especially on the crown and interscapulars), 

 and in having the lesser upper primary coverts more rufous, less 

 grayish, than in hypermetra. I have seen but one specimen of the 

 latter race and the present seven of gallmmm^ but they illustrate 

 the subspecific differences very well. The hypermetra examined has 

 smaller black pectoral spots than any of the gallarum, but this may 

 be purely an individual matter. 



The seven birds collected by the Frick expedition are all in fairly 

 worn plumage. One of them (the bird taken at Gada Bourca on 

 December 24) is slightly browner above than the others, but not 

 nearly so brown as hypermetra. The dimensions of the series are as 

 given in table 1. 



Table 1. — Measurements of seven specimens (oil males) of Mirafra hypermetra 



gallarnm from Eiltiopia 



Erlanger ^^ found this lark to inhabit grassy plains thinly dotted 

 with trees and shrubs, but definitely records it as absent in the grassy 

 steppes of Arussi-Gallaland, a fact that, in keeping with what is 

 known of the distribution of the nominate form, indicates that gal- 

 Jarum is also a bird of relatively low altitudes. Erlanger first en- 

 countered it in the Danakil region north of the Hawash Valley and 



"Journ. fur Orn., 1907, pp. 46-47. 



