PYRRHULAUDA LEUCOTIS. 89 



grain had just been sown. The food consists chiefly of grass- 

 seed." The species has been met with at Fort Johnston, in 

 the Shire highlands by Dr. Kendall, and Mr. Alfred Sharpe 

 has obtained a specimen at Katunga to the west of Lake 

 Nyasa. In the Uniamwesi country Bmin procured the species 

 at Tabora, and Fischer collected specimens from further north, 

 at Ndutian in Masailand, at Melinda on the coast, and in 

 Wapokomoland on the left bank of the Tana river. 



In the British Museum there are specimens from Manda 

 Island, and from the Kassim river in Southern Abyssinia, 

 which agree in every detail with specimens from the Transvaal 

 and Zambesi district. I have not, however, yet seen the 

 species recorded from Somaliland. Antinori procured two of 

 these Larks at Daimbe in Adda Grallaland, where he considered 

 them to be scarce, while Ragazzi, who collected the same 

 number at Cialalaka, records them as common in that district, 

 but probably more so at Assab. Specimens have also been 

 obtained by Mr. Pease at Mallabella and Balchi in South 

 Abyssinia. 



The type of Loxia leucotis, Stanley, was procured by Salt 

 in Abyssinia, probably in the northern part ; and Pyrrhidauda 

 smithi, Bp., was founded on Smith's 111. B. S. Afr. pi. 26. 

 I can find no definable character for distinguishing these 

 forms. The latter have generally, but not always, a trifle 

 more black on the lesser wing-coverts, and the wing and 

 bill slightly larger on an average: wing, 3-0 to 3"4 inches; 

 culmen, 0"4 to 0"45 — this would include specimens fi'om Manda 

 Island and S. Abyssinia. In the British Museum there is a 

 pair of Mr. Blanford's specimens from Asoos on the Samhar 

 coast, and others from Nubia, the Soudan, Redjaf and 

 Kudurma, and, according to Heuglin, the species ranges 

 southward and westward from north-east Kordofan and the 

 Red Sea, being abundant in Nubia and southward along the 



