CERTHILAUDA CAPENSIS, 495 
The chief distinguishing character of the present species is the 
absence of white tips to the tail-feathers. It is common in 
most parts of the colony, as we have received it from all our 
correspondents. It frequents the sandy Cape Flats, the corn- 
lands of Malmesbury, the uplands of Caledon, and the grassy 
plateaux of the Knysna. It never congregates in flocks, rarely 
more than two being found within a certain range. Its food 
consists of insects and seeds. 
It constructs a cup-shaped nest of hair and grasses, lined with 
feathers, under the shelter of a bush or stone; the eggs, generally 
three in number, are dirty white, faintly and minutely specked with 
light brown: axis, 11’; diameter, 8’. Some specimens run much 
darker than others. 
Mr. Gurney records a specimen from Natal in one of Mr. Ayres’ 
early collections from that colony, but we have never seen a 
specimen from that country. 
Adult.—Above brown, slightly washed with sandy colour, and 
streaked with dark brown centres to the feathers, many of which 
are tipped with whitish ; hind neck greyish; wing-coverts darker 
brown, washed with sandy colour on the outer web, and tipped with 
whitish, the primary coverts narrowly tipped with the latter colour 
also ; quills ashy brown, narrowly margined with sandy buff, the 
innermost secondaries with a broad whitish margin ; rump and upper 
tail-coverts sandy rufous, with dark brown central streaks to the 
feathers ; upper tail-coverts ashy brown, darker brown in the centre 
of the feathers ; tail-feathers dark brown, narrowly margined with 
ashy fulyous, the two middle ones washed with greyish, the outer- 
most margined and tipped with pale sandy buff; a very distinct 
eyebrow creamy white ; feathers under the eye dusky white, those 
in front of the latter blackish; ear-coverts dull sandy colour; cheeks 
whitish, minutely spotted with black; chin white; rest of under 
surface buffy white, the breast slightly washed with sandy colour, 
the lower throat, fore neck, and breast plentifully marked with 
triangular spots of black, larger and more longitudinal on the lower 
breast and sides of the body ; sides of the upper breast shaded with 
ashy ; under wing-coverts sandy buff, the outermost minutely 
spotted with dark brown, the lower series ashy brown, like the 
inner lining of the wing, the inner webs being pale rufous near the 
base ; under-retail-coverts white, broadly streaked down the centre 
