PYRRHULAUDA MELANOCEPHALA. 91 



white, with an ashy shade towards the scapulars. Iris dark brown ; bill, 

 tarsi and feet pale horn colour. Total length 4-4 inches, culmen 04, wing 

 3-2, tail 1-9, tarsus 0-6. <? , 25. 1. 01. Khartoum (Hawker). 



Female. Similar to that of P. leiccotis, but with the upper parts paler, 

 wing-coverts nearly uniform bulf, obscurely mottled, with the dusky centres 

 to the feathers ; quills and tail-feathers broadly edged with rufous buff. 

 Total length 4-3, culmen 0'4, wing 3, tail 1-7, tarsus 0-6. <? juv. (?). 

 25. 1. 01. Khartoum (Hawker). This specimen shows no signs of imma- 

 turity and agrees well with the typical female figured by Temminck. 



The White-shouldered Sparrow-Lark inhabits West Africa 

 from Senegal to the Niger, and ranges eastward to Khartoum 

 on the Nile. It apparently entirely replaces P. leucotis to 

 the west of the Nile valley. 



Hartlaub's description, in 1857, of a West African Pyrr- 

 hulauda in the Bremen Museum, is not sufficiently good to 

 recognise the species he refers to ; it is probably identical with 

 a bird he mentions from Senegambia in the Berlin Museum, 

 and with Verreaux's specimen from Casamanse. 



The most northern range known to me for the species is 

 Daranka on Cape Verde, where Marche procured an example. 

 Recently several specimens have been collected in the interior 

 of our Gold Coast Possessions at Binduri by Captain Boyd 

 Alexander, who kindly informs me that on December 23, 

 1900, he saw the species for the first time near the village of 

 Wale-Wale (10° 30' N. lat. 1° W. long). Being then on horse- 

 back with a column of Haussas, he could only watch them as 

 they kept alighting on the road in front of him, or flying on to 

 the trees which lined the road. Among them were both adult 

 males and females. He did not meet with them again until 

 February 20, when he was at Biuduri, about fifty miles north 

 of Gambaga. Here the country is very open in places, being 

 covered with mealie corn, long grass, and interspersed with 

 short stunted trees, and he shot five out of a flock which 

 had resorted to a small dried-up water course, whose sloping 



