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MIRAPRA APIATA. 515 
wing-coverts, the greater series of the latter with sandy rufous 
margins ; quills brown, paler towards the tips, and margined with 
sandy rufous paling into whitish buff towards the tips of the 
secondaries ; under surface of body white, the breast streaked with 
blackish brown, each feather narrowly margined with whitish. 
Winter plumage.—Duller and more ashy brown than in summer, 
all the feathers obscured with greyish margins ; underneath more 
yellowish, the spots on the breast duller and paler brown, and not 
nearly so largely developed. 
Fig. le Vaill. Ois. d’ Afr. iv, pl. 192. 
510. Mrrarra aprata (V.) Bar-tailed Lark. 
Megalophonus apiatus (V.): Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 215. 
In the genus Mirafre the first primary is well developed, being 
longer than the inner toe and claw, but the nostrils are exposed 
with a membrane on the upper margin, but not covered with 
bristles, as in Calendula. The present species has the tail varied 
- with zigzag spots and bars of black like M. rufipilea, but it differs 
from that species in being grey, and on having the rufous on the 
primaries confined to the outer web. 
This beautiful Lark, of whose elegant colours it is impossible 
to convey any idea by mere words, is common in all the western 
districts of the colony, and is well known from its singular habit 
of rising fifteen or thirty feet into the air, perpendicularly, making 
a sharp cracking sound with its wings as it rises, uttering a long 
shrill “‘phew,” and then falling as abruptly to the earth. This 
action it will repeat at intervals of a minute or two, for an hour 
or more, chiefly during dull mornings, but in bright weather it 
commences before and after sunset. It delights in warm sandy soils ; 
but we met with it on the high table-land of the Cold Bokkeveld in 
considerable abundance. 
It is not met with at George, according to Mr. Atmore, but 
extends as far as Port Elizabeth. Here, writes Mr. Rickard, “ it 
is common. It is most lively at sunrise and sunset, sometimes 
heard when it is nearly dark. If on the ground near short scrubby 
bush, it will run into it and may be driven a long distance before 
taking wing.” We have seen specimens also from Kuruman, but 
in the Transvaal and to the north of the colony its place appears 
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