14 ALAUDIDiE. 



which he compares with the type of M. wintoni (Ibis, 1899, 

 p. 663). The latter was shot by Mr. Jackson in Kavirondo, 

 October 22, 18S9, and Dr. Sharpe writes : " This is an 

 interesting discovery of Mr. Jackson's, considered along 

 with the appearance of Ghera jirocne and Pyromelana taha in 

 Central East Africa. In the case of the two last-named 

 birds I was unable to find any specific differences from 

 South African examples, but the present bird is quite 

 recognisable from M. amelife by its smaller size and much 

 smaller bill." Mr. Jackson also procured a specimen near 

 Naiwasha lake, August 6, 1897. In this country to the 

 east of the Victoria Nyanza between Manyara lake and 

 Kavirondo, Mr. Neumann appears to have found the species 

 fairly abundant, and it probably ranges northward into 

 Southern Abyssinia, for Heuglin mentions a specimen of 

 M. amelix in the collection of Prince Paul, of Wurtemberg. 



Family VIII. ALAUDID^]. 



The Larks differ from all the other Oscincs in having the back of the 

 tarsus scaled. 



Bill variable and often somewhat Finch-like. Nostrils hidden by 

 bristly plumes or exposed. Wing generally with ten primaries, unless 

 the bastard-primary, which is very variable in size, is entirely absent, as 

 in Ca'andrella ; longest secondary generally reaches nearly or quite to the 

 tip of the wing, but in Otocorys, lihamphocorys and Melanocorypha it falls 

 short by at least the length of the tarbus. Tarsi fairly long ; hind claw 

 very variable, never strongly curved, but sometimes abnormally long and 

 straight. Plumage generally mottled, consisting of white, brown, rufous 

 and black, rarely with any yellow and never with any other bright colours, 

 and is well adapted for protection in the open country these birds frequent. 



Nest, cup-shaped, constructed of dry grass, placed on the ground in 

 a slight depression and generally hidden beneath a tuft of grass. The 

 number of eggs in a nest varies from two to five; they have a characteristic 

 colouration, being whitish freckled with brown, which latter colour 

 generally forms a somewhat distinct zone towards the larger ends. 



In 1896, when I published my list of the birds of the Ethiopian Eegion, 



