62 MIRAFRA HOVA. 



Adult. Above mottled, pale rufous brown with broad dark centres to 

 the feathers. Wings more rufous than the back ; the rufous edges on the 

 quills extending across about half of the outer and half of the inner webs ; 

 under wing-coverts and inner margins of the quills pale cinnamon. Tail 

 blackish brown with the pattern confined to the two outer pairs of feathers ; 

 the outer feather is white, with a large, rather irregularly defined dusky 

 wedge-shaped patch on the inner web reaching almost to its tip, the pen- 

 ultimate feather has a large portion of the outer web buff. A broad eyebrow 

 and sides of head buff, the latter mottled with brown ; chin and throat white 

 shading into brownish buff on the sides of the upper neck ; remainder of the 

 under parts brownish buff; lower throat and crop with boldly marked 

 angular blackish spots which unite into a patch between the crop and the 

 sides of the neck. " Iris brown ; feet rosy grey " (Grandidier). Total length 

 5"7 inches, culmen 0-45, wing 2-8, tail 1-8, tarsus 0-85. 



The Hova Lark is confined to the island of Madagascar. 



This species is the only representative of the family 

 Alaudidse in the whole of the Madagascar subregion. It was 

 discovered by the late Professor Peters in the bay of 

 St. Augustin, on the west coast of the island. Sir Edward 

 Newton, while passing from the coast to the capital, found 

 these birds as common as our Sky-Lark in England, wherever 

 he crossed the open country; but they were not nearly so 

 plentiful in the neighbourhood of Foule Point as on the great 

 plain near Mangourou. He calls their song very poor, and he 

 likens their flight to that of our Wood-Lark. 



According to M. Grandidier they not only inhabit the 

 plains to the east and west but are very often found in parties 

 of six or eight, more rarely in pairs, in the midst of the bare 

 arid highlands of the centre of the island. In habits they 

 resemble their European allies, singing to the morning sun 

 and rising in the air they circle round for a time and then drop 

 rapidly to the ground, where they flit and run about in search 

 of seeds or in pursuit of small insects. They are pugnacious 

 by nature, so if two are placed in the same cage together, they 

 will fight until one is killed. They roost on the ground, and 

 their eggs are four to six in number, of a greenish yellow 



