140 OTOCORYS BERLEPSCIII. 



equal and the longest ; tarsi and feet dusky slate colour. Adults have the 

 head ornamented with a black horn-like tuft of feathers on each side, and 

 the crop uniform black. In the single Ethiopian species the entire front 

 half of both the head and neck are black. 



Type. 

 Otocorys, Bp. Nuovi Ann. Sc. Nat. Bologna ii. p. 407 (1833). O. alpestris. 



Otocorys berlepschi. 



Otocorys berlepschi, Hartert, J. f. 0. 1890, p. 103 ; id. Cat. B. Senckenb. 

 Mas. p. 37 (1891) ; id. Ibis, 1892, p. 523, pi. 13, Kaffmria ; Shelley, 

 B. Afr. I. No. 183 (1896) ; Stark, Faun. S. Afr. B. i. p. 226 (1900). 



Type. " Top and sides of the head, chin, throat, and upper breast black, 

 with a faint purplish gloss ; ear-coverts tipped with pale brown ; occiput, 

 hind neck, interscapular region, smaller upper wing-coverts and tail-coverts 

 bright vinaeeous cinnamon ; outer and inner webs of all the quills brown, 

 faintly margined and tipped with brownish grey ; tail dark brown, centre 

 pair and outer webs of lateral rectrices pale brown ; lower parts pale vinaeeous 

 cinnamon, spotted with brown on the breast and whitish along the middle 

 of the abdomen. Total length about 6-5 inches, wing 4-15, tail 2-8, culmen 

 O'lB, tarsus 0-8. The bill is of the somewhat acute form of Otocorys 

 bilopha" (Hartert). 



The Black-masked Shore-Lark has been recorded from 

 South Africa only. All that T can find regarding this species 

 is that the type is a mounted specimen in the Senckenberg 

 Museum at Frankfurt, and that on a slip of paper attached 

 to the stand of the specimen are the words " Alauda ? 

 Caffraria." I cannot help doubting the accuracy of Kaffraria 

 for the habitat of this Lark, for with the exception of this 

 very remarkably coloured species, the genus Otocorys has never 

 been recorded from south of the Tropic of Cancer. 



Section III. FEINGILL^^. 



Bill stout and somewhat conical, in other words Finch-like ; rictal 

 bristles absent or obsolete. Wing of nine or ten primaries ; secondaries 

 never abnormally elongated, but falling short of tip of wing by about the 

 length of the tarsus. Tail of twelve feathers. Tarsus Fcutellated in front 

 and plain behind. 



