48 MIRAFRA HYPERMETRA. 



&c. This bird is called amongst the farmers the ' Rain-bird,' 

 as they consider it a sign of rain that it rises during the 

 breeding-season for some yards in the air with a fluttering 

 flight, descending with a loud tvhew when this action is often 

 repeated; but it is very certain that the same habit prevails 

 during a succession of dry weather ; in fact, it is one way in 

 which tlie cock bird pays its addresses to the hen, the weather 

 has very little to do with it." 



Mirafra hypermetra. (PL 17, fig. 2.) 



Spilocorydon hypermetrus, Eeichen. Orn. Centralb. 1879, p. 155, 

 Kibaradja ; Sbarpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 620 (1890) Shoa; Hartl. 

 Abh. Nat. Ver. Bremen, 1891, p. 25, Baguera ; Eeichen. Vog. 

 D. 0. Afr. p. 202 (1894) Pangani, Usaramo, Sigirari ; Shelley, 

 B. Afr. I. No. 218 (1896) ; Grant, Ibis, 1900, p. 138, 1901, p. 627 

 S. Abyssinia. 



Mirafra hypermetra, Hartert in Ansorge's " Under Afr. Sun," p. 349 

 (1899) Vol B. 



Adult. Above mottled ashy brown with dark centres to the feathers ; 

 rump and upper tail-coverts with subterminal dark bars. Tail uniform dark 

 brown with narrow whitish edges to the feathers. Wing : inner feathers 

 like the back, but mostly edged with submarginal black lines ; remainder 

 cinnamon with a few dark shaft-marks on the coverts and the ends of 

 the quills brown the cinnamon colour crossing entirely both webs of the 

 quills with the exeeptiou of the inner secondaries and the two outer 

 primaries ; wing-lining with the under coverts of the same shade of 

 cinnamon as the pale portion of the quills. Eyebrow, sides of head, and 

 sides of upper neck buffy white, mottled with brown and black ; chin 

 and upper throat white ; remainder of the under parts buff ; crop slightly 

 mottled with rufous and the flanks washed with dusky ash ; lower throat 

 and crop with angular blackish shaft-spots, most numerous on the sides, 

 where they form the usual fairly distinct black patch between the crop 

 and the side of the neck ; a few indistinct shaft-stripes on the flanks and 

 some more sharply defined ones on the under tail-coverts. " Iris hazel ; bill 

 above dark horny-brown, paler below ; legs pale." Total length 8-5 inches, 

 cuhnen 0-7, wing 4-3, tail 35, tarsus 1-25. J , 21. 1. 99. Gadaburka (Lovat, 

 Mus. Brit.). 



A specimen labelled " <J , Smara, Feb. 2, 1900 (Lord Delamere)," is 

 much more rufous on the upper parts, crop and sides of chest. 



