30 MIRAFRA. 



elsewhere. He met with them almost invariably in pairs and 

 never saw them assemble in a flock. They, not unfrequently, 

 perched on the tops of bushes, and their note was loud, pro- 

 longed, and a clear whistle. He further remarks that they 

 breed in the neighbourhood of Cape Town in September and 

 October. 



Genus II. MIRAFEA. 



Sexes alike in plumage ; crown and back always mottled. Bill 

 moderately strong ; culmen shorter than the middle toe with claw ; nostrils 

 exposed. Wing rounded, none of the secondaries fall short of the tip of the 

 wing by nearly so much as the length of the tarsus, and the longest ones 

 reach about to the end of the wing ; bastard-primary well developed, extend- 

 ing beyond the primary coverts and middle of the wing ; second primary not 

 longer than the fifth. Tarsi, feet and claws moderate and brown or flesh- 

 colour. 



Type. 

 Mu-afra, Horsf. Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 159 



(1820) M. javanica. 



Corypha, Gray, List Gen. B. 1840, p. 48 . . M. apiata. 

 Megalophonus, Gray, List Gen. B. 1841, 



p. 62 M. apiata. 



Plocealauda, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc. 



1844, p. 84 M. assamica. 



Geocoraphus, Cab. Arch. Nat. xiii. p. 328 



(1847) M. javanica. 



Calendulauda, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xxiv. 



p. 258 (1855) M. nivosa. 



Spilocorydon, Eeichen. Orn. Centralb. 1879, 



p. 155 M. hypermetra. 



To this genus belong nearly half the known species of Larks. It is 

 confined to the tropical portion of the Old World and South Africa, ranging 

 eastward to the Philippines, Borneo, Flores and Java. Of the thirty-seven 

 species known to me twenty-six are confined to Africa ; one, M. cantillans, 

 ranges from N.E. Africa into India ; nine are confined to S. Asia and the 

 islands above mentioned, and one is restricted to Madagascar. 



