PYRRHULAUDA VERTICALIS 83 



birds will now and again proclaim their presence by rising up 

 from the ground and indulging in their jerky little songs ; but 

 to passers-by they never betray themselves, sitting close the 

 whole time, and creeping very often under some large stones. 

 There is little variation in the song, which might be expressed 

 by the words ' All alive ho ! ' constantly repeated. While on 

 Boavista we were fortunate to frighten a male off his nest, 

 containing two eggs, which were well incubated. The nest, 

 composed of a little dead grass, was placed underneath a large 

 stone. The eggs are a dirty white in ground colour, evenly 

 spotted and blotched all over with light brown, and with 

 minute underlying spots of purplish grey ; they measure 

 0'8 X 0*59." At Boavista he found them more numerous 

 than on any other island. They used to get up close at his 

 feet in clouds and fly forward a few feet above the ground. 

 Mr. Leonardo Fea also met with the species on this island and 

 Mr. Feijo procured specimens on Santo Antao, so we may 

 presume that it inhabits all the islands of the Cape Verde 

 group. 



Pyrrhulauda verticalis. 



Megalotis verticalis, Smith, Eep. Exped. C. Afr., p. 48 (1836) Orange B. 

 Pyrrhulauda verticahs, Sousa, Jorn. Lisb. 1889, p. 115 Catumbella ; 



Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii. p. 656 (1890) Damara, Cape Col. Transvaal ; 



Fleck, J. f. O. 1894, p. 411 Damara ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 232 



(1896) ; Stark, Faun. S. Afr. B. i. p. 195 (1900). 



Achdt mala. Head and neck black, with the ear-coverts, forehead, 

 a patch on the centre of the back half of the crown and a band below the 

 nape, white ; back and scapulars nearly uniform brown varying in shade 

 from sandy buff to dark brown, with a few faintly marked dark shaft-stripes. 

 Wing : above dark brown with sandy buff edges to all the feathers, broadest 

 on the coverts and inner secondaries ; under surface of quills dusky ash with 

 buff' partial inner edges ; under wing-coverts black. Tail blackish brown 

 with the centre feathers paler, and broadly edged with light sandy brown, 

 and about half of the outer pair of feathers dusky white. Throat and under 



