BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 15 



Kenya Colony (pis. 13, 14), creating together with the highlands 

 birds what is probably the richest fauna of any portion of Ethiopia. 

 There is no well-defined lower limit to the subtropical zone, as the 

 lowland fauna (tropical-arid) extends well up the mountainsides. 

 The Shoan lake region and the tall grass savann,ahs of the eastern 

 Galla highlands might be termed almost tropical, but they are ob- 

 viously mixtures in their avifauna and not true zonal areas. 



Order PASSERIFORMES 

 Family ALAUDIDAE, Larks 



MIRAFRA CANTILLANS MARGINATA Hawker 



Mirafra marginata Hawker, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 7, p. 55, 1898: Ugiagi, 



i. e., Ujawagi, Ethiopia. 

 Specimens collected: 



3 adult females, 1 adult unsexed, Hawash River, Ethiopia, February 4-12, 



1912. 

 1 ininmture male. Mount Jebriug, southeast of Lake Stefanie, Kenya 

 Colony, May 14, 1912. 



1 immature male, Tertale, Ethiopia, June 8, 1912. 



2 immature males, Turturo, Ethiopia, June 16, 1912. 



1 adult male, south end Lake Rudolf, Kenya Colony, July 10, 1912. 



3 adult, 2 immature, males, ladunumara Mountains, Kenya Colony, July 

 14-16, 1912. 



This species of bush lark is distributed from India west through 

 northeastern Africa to Asben in the French Sahara. In the Ethio- 

 pian region it breaks up into three races, as follows : 



1. 31. c. simplex: Western and southwestern Arabia. 



2. M. c. irmrginata: The eastern Hawash Valley and eastern Galla- 

 land south through Kenya Colony to the Serengeti Plains east of 

 Mount Kilimanjaro and to Lake Magadi. 



3. M. c. chadensis: The Kassala Province of the Anglo-Egyptian 

 Sudan west through Kordofan ,and Darfur to Lake Chad and to 

 Asben. 



Of these three, the status of marginata is the least satisfactory. I 

 am not at all convinced that it is different enough from the Arabian 

 simplex to justify its recognition, but I have not sufficient material 

 from Arabia to decide the point. On the whole, marginata has the 

 pectoral streaks darker than simplex. 



Zedlitz ^ has examined Hawker's type and finds it to be a young 

 bird. This, then, may account for its generally brownish tone. The 

 present specimens from the Hawash River are distinctly grayish 

 birds, not at all like the illustration ^ of the type. They are all in 

 worn plumage. 



'Journ. fur Orn., 1916, p. 58. 

 * Ibis, 1899, p. 64, pi. 2, fig. 2. 



