MIRAFRA GILLETTI. 35 



fly to a distance and then perch upon the summit of some dwarf 

 shrub. He also remarks that it whistles occasionally in the 

 morning, soars like a true Lark, and on descending usually 

 alights on a skrub. Its food consists of seeds and small insects. 



The most eastern locality I can find for the species is 

 Beaufort, where it has been met with by Mr. Layard. He 

 writes : — " A single nest fell under our observation in December. 

 The eggs, four in number, and of a mottled brown, were 

 deposited in a cup-shaped nest on the side of a low bush at 

 the edge of a footpath. When we approached it the bird 

 crept away to a little distance, then rose, flew a few yards, 

 and perched on an ant-heap to watch us. As we were pro- 

 ceeding to kill a Hijsena, which had been caught in one of our 

 traps, we deferred taking the eggs until our return ; but 

 coming home by a different route, we had to leave them till 

 next morning, when on proceeding to the spot we found the 

 young excluded. The hen bird, on this and several subsequent 

 occasions, executed the same manoeuvres to escape detection." 



There is, in my opinion, no reason for doubt that the type 

 came from Cape Colony, although Swainson first described the 

 species in his Birds of West Africa i. p. 213, which caused 

 Dr. Hartlaub to enter it in his Ornithologie West-afrikas, 

 p. 153, as West African, on the supposed authority of Swainson, 

 although Swainson never mentions any locality for the type of 

 the species. The types of Alauda codea and A. lagepa (Smith) 

 are both in the British Museum, the former is in winter 

 plumage, and the latter, the same species, in summer. 



Mirafra gilletti. (PL 15, fig. 1.) 



Mirafra gilletti, Sharpe, Bull. B. 0. C. p. 29 (1895) Somali ; id. P. Z. S. 

 1895, p. 472 ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 205 (1896) ; Elliot, Field- 

 Columb. Mus. i. No. 2, p. 37 (1897) Eillier ; Lort Phillips, Ibis, 

 1898, p. 401 ; Hawker, Ibis, 1899, p. 64 Somali; Grant, Ibis, 1900 

 p. 138 Abyssinia; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1901, p. 302 Somali. 



