BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 17 



as in marginata. Zedlitz and others have commented on the great 

 variability of the color characters of Tnarginata. 



Young birds vary as well as adults. Thus, in the series of six 

 immature specimens listed above, the crown feathers vary from 

 black to dull rufous-brown, in both cases bordered terminally with 

 tawny-buff; the upper back and back are predominantly grayish 

 earth brown in one bird, tawny buffy brown in another; the pectoral 

 streaks are very dark in some specimens and much paler in others. 



Van Someren ^°^ has recently recorded this lark from the Marsabit 

 area where it was nesting in June and July. Other locality records 

 given by him are Nyondo Crater, Chanlers Falls, Taveta, and 

 Nakuru. 



MIRAFRA PULPA Friedmann 



Mirafra pulpa Fried iiakx. Occ. Papers Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 5, p. 257, 



1930: Sagon River, Ethiopia. 

 Specimens collected : 1 male, Sagon River, Ethiopia, May 19, 1912. 



This specimen is the type and only known example of this dis- 

 tinct species discovered by the Frick expedition. As mentioned in 

 the original description, tliis lark appears to be most closely related 

 to the South African Mirafra passerina Gyldenstolpe, from which it 

 differs in being much darker in color, in having a shorter, more 

 deeply curved claw on the hind toe, and in having a relatively stouter, 

 heavier bill. The specimen is in worn plumage. 



According to Mearns's notes, this bird has the habit of rattling 

 its wings in flight like the flappet lark {M. fischeri). The single 

 specimen obtained "sang sweetly from a bush" when first seen, and it 

 was shot as it flew off. 



It is of more than passing interest to find this bird, so similar to 

 M. passenna, in southern Ethiopia, as not a few larks of South 

 Africa find their nearest relatives in the northeastern part of the 

 continent. The genera Spizocorys^ Heteromirafra, and CerthUauda, 

 for example, occur only in those two regions and not in the interven- 

 ing thousands of miles. 



MIRAFRA ALBICAUDA Reichenow 



Mirafra albicaud^j Reichenow, Journ. fiir Oru., 1S91, p. 223 : Gonda, Tabora 



district, Tanganyika Territory. 

 Specimens collected: 



1 male, Lake Abaya, SE., Ethiopia, March 21, 1912. 



2 males. Lake Abaya, S., Ethiopia, March 22, 1912. 



1 male, Black Lake Abaya, Ethiopia, March 24, 1912. 



1 male, Athi Station, Uganda Railway, Kenya Colony, September 1, 1912. 



The East African white-tailed bush lark does not appear to have 

 been previously recorded from Ethiopia although known from the 



ic^Nov. Zool., vol. 37, p. S36, 1932. 



