18 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL. MUSEUM 



Upper White Nile and tlie Kassala districts of the Sudan. It is 

 barely possible that the Shoan birds may form a distinct race, as 

 they are more brownish, less ashy gray on the upper back than a 

 small series from southern Kenya Colony. However, the difference is 

 slight and the series small, so the matter can not be decided at 

 present. All in all, I have examined only seven birds. There is 

 considerable individual variation in the white on the outer rectrices. 

 Some specimens have the two outermost pairs entirely white and 

 the outer web of the third pair also white, while others have only 

 the outermost pair w^holly white, the second white with a fuscous- 

 brown smear on the inner web, the third without any white. This 

 agrees with the observations of Ogilvie-Grant " that in Sudanese 

 specimens "the amount of white in the outer tail-feathers 

 varies. * * * ji^ some examples, as in the type, the tiuo outer 

 pairs are mostly white; in others only the outer pairs are white and 

 the fifth pair have the outer web mostly white, while in the fourth 

 it is only margined with white." 



The size variations of this bird are not unusual in range. The 

 present five males have the following dimensions : Wing, 77-84 (aver- 

 age, 80.3) ; tail, 43.5-48.5 (average, 45.5) ; culmen, 12.5-14 (average, 

 13.2); tarsus, 22-23 (average, 22.5 mm). 



This lark occurs from the Tabora, Unyamwesi, and Unyamyembe 

 districts of Tanganyika Territory north through the Sotik and 

 Ukamba districts of Kenya Colony to southern Shoa and to the 

 Sudan (Upper White Nile and Kassala areas) west to the Shari- 

 Chad region. I have not learned of any records, however, from the 

 area between Thika, Kenya Colony, and the Sudan and southern 

 Shoa, but the absence of records is perhaps due to the ease with 

 which larks are apt to be overlooked by collectors. It probably oc- 

 curs in suitable localities all through the intervening country. It 

 appears to be a bird of lowland plains and would therefore be absent 

 from the highlands of western and west-central Kenya Colony, and 

 from the papyrus areas and forests of Uganda. However, its alti- 

 tudinal range may be greater than we know. Van Someren ^" re- 

 cords a bird from Nakuru as '■''Mirafra sp., near dlhicaudd)\ but, as 

 the specimen was badly damaged by the shot and in the absence of 

 comparative material, he refrains from definitely identifying it as 

 aTbicauda. Thika is 4,500 feet above the sea; Nakuru is 6,070 feet. 



But little is known of the habits of this lark. In the Sudan But- 

 ler " never saw it away from regions of black cotton-soil. He 

 found that in its general habits it was quite similar to Mirafra 



"Ibis, 1902, pp. 409-410. 

 J^Ibls, 1916, p. 434. 

 "Ibis, 1905, p. 309. 



