7. MACRONYX. 627 



Adult. General colour above dark brown, the feathers edged with 

 fulvous brown, causing a slightly streaked a^ipearance, which is not 

 so apparent on the head, where the feathers are not so broadly lined ; 

 hind neck ashy brown, with indistinct darker-brown centres to the 

 feathers ; lower back and rump ashy brown, the feathers nearly 

 uniform, being only subterminaUy darker brown ; upper tail-coverts 

 brown, with fulvous-brown edgings ; tail-feathers dark brown, 

 margined with fulvous brown, the four outer feathers tipped with 

 white, increasing in extent towards the outermost, which is also 

 edged with white along the outer web, these lateral tail-feathers 

 also slightly edged with olive-yellow towards the base ; quills dark 

 brown, with paler or more buffy-whitish edgings ; the least wing- 

 coverts externally washed with olive-yellow ; the bastard-wing, 

 primary-coverts, and primaries dark brown, narrowly edged with 

 olive-yellow : the secondaries dark brown, with whity-brown margins ; 

 lores and a streak of feathers over the eye bright yellow ; round the 

 eye a ring of somewhat paler-yellow feathers ; ear-coverts light 

 brown ; throat and cheeks bright lemon-yellow, encircled by a very 

 distinct band of black, which runs from the lower part of the eye 

 down the sides of the neck and joins across the fore neck ; sides of 

 neck ashy brown, the feathers edged with white, giving a distinctly 

 streaked appearance ; rest of the under surface of body yellow, the 

 chest streaked with black just below the broad collar ; sides of the 

 body light brown, streaked with blackish' brown ; thighs and under 

 tail-coverts light yellow ; under wing-coverts and axillaries yellow, 

 the lower series white, dusky brown at the base ; lower surface of 

 the quills light brown, ashy brown along the inner webs. Total 

 length 7'6 inches, culmen 0"75, wing 3-9, tail 2"2, tarsus 1'45. 



Considerable differences are to be observed in a series of this 

 Pipit ; and Dr. von Heuglin was at one time inclined to regard the 

 bird from Central Africa as a distinct species, which he named 

 Macronyx striolatus. This, however, he afterwards united to 

 M. croceus, but Mr. Nicholson in 1878 dissented from that view and 

 re-established Heuglin's species. After an examination of a large 

 series we believe that the characters pointed out by Heuglin are 

 solely due to age. 



The bird when breeding gets its plumage very much worn, the 

 head and rump become ashy, and a shade of hoary white extends 

 down the sides of the neck along the sides of the black gorget. The 

 winter plumage is darker and more mottled than the summer dress. 

 The female resembles the male in colour, but has the black gorget 

 less strongly developed. The young bird in winter plumage has 

 scarcely any trace of the black gorget, which is represented by a 

 few blackish streaks ; the yellow of the throat and breast is less 

 developed, and the dark stripes on the flanks are less pronounced. 



Mr. T. L. Ayres has recently sent me a series of specimens from 

 Natal, amongst which is a young male moulting into winter plumage, 

 and killed on the 13th of March. Another male shot by him on 

 the 27th of May is in full winter dress, and shows that the black 



2&2, 



