ANTHUS LINEIVENTKIS. 297 



to be heard singing from the tops of the ant-hills, or occasion- 

 ally as they flew from one resting place to another. Their 

 notes reminded me of those of the English Meadow Pipit. 

 They resemble the latter bird also in their habit of creeping 

 through the grass and running quickly across the more open 

 spaces." All the specimens I have seen that have been shot 

 in May, June and July are in the winter dress. In the latter 

 month Captain Savile Reid met with the species at the 

 Ingagani river : " very local and only to be found on one 

 particular open flat near the main drift." In breeding 

 plumage, the whole throat and front of chest is bright yellow, 

 as shown in the front figure (P. Z. S. 1882, p. 336, pi. 

 18), taken from a specimen shot by Major B. A. Butler at 

 Newcastle on November 9, and which I made the type of 

 A. butleri. This specimen, with the rest of my collection, is 

 now in the British Museum. 



Anthus lineiventris. (PI. 13, fig. 1.) 



Anthus lineiventris, Sundev. ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. x. p. 540 (1885) Natal, 

 Transvaal; Shelley, Ibis, 1894, p. 23 Zomba ; id. B. Afr. I. No. 

 155 (1896); Bendall, Ibis, 1896, p. 174 Transvaal; Sharpe, Ibis, 

 1897, p. 515 Zulu; Shelley, Ibis, 1898, p. 379 Zomba; Stark, 

 Faun. S. Afr. i. p. 245 (1900). 



Adult. Upper parts dusky brown with paler ashy brown edges to the 

 feathers ; upper wing-coverts and edges of the primaries partially washed 

 with yellow ; axillaries and under wing-coverts near the bend of the wing- 

 bright yellow ; tail-feathers blackish brown with very narrow partial yellow 

 edges and angular white ends to the outer four pairs, largest on the outer- 

 most one and deepest on the inner webs next to the shafts ; sides of head 

 brown mottled with buff, and with a broad, not very clearly defined buff 

 eyebrow ; under parts buff with black shaft-stripes on the sides and base of 

 throat, chest and flanks. " Bill pale brown, with the culmen and end 

 blackish ; irides light brown ; tarsi and feet pale " (T. Ayres). Total length 

 6-9 inches, culmen 0-65, wing 3-3, tail 2-8, tarsus 1-1. Bustenberg, ? , 

 29. 7. 78 (T. Ayres.) 



