PITTAS. 



85 



inner margins of quills ruf escent buff ; bill and feet dull 

 flesh-colour. Female similar, but slightly smaller. 

 Hab., Palestine to Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia. 



According to Von Heuglin this species is generally toi 

 foe met with in pairs along the borders of the culti- 

 vated land and the desert, often frequenting the caravan 

 tracks and feeding on insects, corn, and the seeds of 

 desert plants. The note is very insignificant, and the 

 birds keep to the ground, only occasionally perching 

 on 'bushes. 



According to Shelley (" Birds of Africa," Vol. III., 

 p. 98 : " They construct a neatly-formed nest of grass, 

 placed in a slight depression and sheltered by a tuft of 

 grass or a large stone, and lay four eggs. These are of 

 an ashy craum colour, obscurely marked with purplish 

 grey and more distinctly so with brown. They measure 

 0.9 in. x 0.6." 



Russ says that this bird arrives in the trade occa- 

 sionally in single specimens. 



WHITE-HEADED BULLFINCH-LARK 

 (Pyrrhulauda verticalis). 



Above ashy-grey mettled! with brown ; wing-coverts 

 brown with, grey edges ; flights dark brown with grey 

 edges ; central tail-feathers pale brown with white 

 edges, the remainder dark brown with grey edges, 

 excepting the outermost, which is> white with, a ibrown 

 patch at 'base of inner web ; crowm black ; centre of 

 occiput, ear-coverts and nape white, behind which is a 

 black 'collar encircling 1 the neck ; lores, front of cheeks, 

 throat and body below blackish-brown ; bill Jiorn- 

 coloured ; feet dark flesh-coloured ; irides dark brown. 

 Female with the eyebrow and lores buffishi ; throat and 

 under surface of body white tinged with rufous. Hab., 

 South Africa, ranging to the Transvaal on the east and 

 the Congo on tihe west. 



Dr. Stark says (" Birdis of South Africa," Vol. I., p. 

 196) : " In Northern Cape Colony these small Larks 

 congregate in considerable flocks during autumn and 

 winter, and usually keep to the open veldt,, where they 

 run about on the ground in search of .fallen/ grass-seedis 

 and small insects. If disturbed they fly for a short 

 distance, with undulating flight, and alight a.gain 

 directly on the ground at no great distance. While 

 running about they frequently utter a shrill, but not 

 very loud, chirp. About the middle of August the 

 flocks break Tip and the birds separate in pairs, and 

 about a month later commence to build' their nesits. 

 Some slight hollow is chosen by the side of a tuft of 

 grass ; this is lined with fine* dry grass, to which a few 

 horse-hairs are occasionally added, and in this slight 

 nest two or three eggs are laid. These are of a pale 

 cream-colour or dull white, somewhat thickly spotted 

 all over with two shades of pale amber brown. They 

 average 0.80 x 0.65." 



The London Zoological Society secured three examples 

 of this species in September, 1873. Oddly enough Ruse 

 does not note the species, although he describes many 

 species which have never been imported. 



WHITE-CHEEKED BULLFINCH-LARK 

 (Pyrrhulauda leucotis). 



Upper back and scapulars cinnamon, some of the 

 feathers partly edged with buff; lower back and upper 

 tail-coverts buff, centres of feathers slightly ashy ; 

 median and greater wing- coverts cinnamon with broad 

 buff edges ; flights dusky brown edged with rufous, 

 most broadly on the inner secondaries; tail-feathers 

 blackish-brown, the central ones with pale rufous inner 

 edges, the outer ones becoming dusky white on outer 

 webs and towards the tips ; head and neck black ; 



ear-coverts and a band crossing hind neck white ; 

 throat and under surface of body black ; a patch of 

 white and chestnut at sides of lower throat ; flanks and 

 thighs whitish ;. under wing-coverts black ; flights dusky 

 brown below, with inner edges partly pale rufescent 

 buff ; bill ashy white ; feet ashy ; irides hazel. Female 

 with no black on head ; ear-coverts istreaked with buff ; 

 under surface buff, thickly mottled with black down 

 throat and centre of breast ; axillaries and most of under 

 wing-coverts black. Hab., South Africa north to 

 Damaraland on the west and over the eastern half of 

 Tropical Africa. (Shelley). 



Dr. Sharpe regarded the southern examples as repre- 

 senting a distinct sub-species (P. smithii), but Captain 

 Shelley merely records it as a synonym of P. leucotis; 

 on the other hand, Messrs. Stark and Sclater follow 

 Dr. Sharpe. 



Dr. Stark says ("Birds of South Africa," Vol. I., 

 p. 197) : " Very like P. verticalis in its habits, but it 

 is usually in smaller flocks, numbering from ten to 

 forty or fifty individuals, and it is often found feed- 

 ing on the ground among dwarf bushes, while P. 

 verticalis keeps to more open country." 



Captain Shelley quotes the following, among other 

 notes on the habits ("Bird of Africa," Vol. III., pp. 

 88, 89, and 90) : " Mr. Boyd Alexander . . . writes : 

 ' It frequents flat portions of stony ground. In the 

 breeding-season the male sings on the wing, rising 

 vertically up from the ground, and descending to earth 

 again with hardly a beat of the wings. The call-note, 

 uttered on the ground, is a ventriloquial pipe.' 



" Living in colonies, these birds are continually shift- 

 ing from one locality to another, according to the 

 supply of food. At Zumbo they suddenly appeared on 

 December 13th, when the grain had just been sown. 

 The food consists chiefly of grass-seed. 



" Above Khartoum Mr. H. F. Witherby found these 

 Larks less numerous than P. frontalis, with which they 

 associated, and writes : ' On May 11 we found a nest 

 of this species in a small scooped-out hollow in the 

 caked mud amongst some very short; burnt-up grass 

 near the river. The nest, which was sheltered by a 

 large lump of mud, was a shallow " cup " composed 

 of dry grass and two or three bits of cotton. Round 

 the " cup " was a compact and neatly arranged layer 

 of particles of mud, perhaps made by the birds during 

 the formation of the hollow in the caked ground. The 

 nest contained one egg, from which the female flew 

 on our approach.' " 



Russ observes of typical P. leucotis that of late years 

 it has on several occasions been imported by Miss 

 Hagenbeck, Mr. Charles Jamrach, and certainly once 

 by smaller Hamburg dealers. It reached the Zoological 

 Gardens of Frankfort am Main in 1872, and those of 

 Hamburg in 1874, and he considers it unaccountable 

 that it sihould not have reached the London Gardens ; 

 in 1907, however, Mr. Seth-Smith presented an 

 example of P. smithii to the London Zoological Society. 



PITTAS (Pittidce). 



Formerly supposed to be related to the typical 

 Thrushes, but the late Professor Garrod proved them 

 to be allied to the New World birds placed by him in 

 a section called Mesomyodi. They are birds of brilliant 

 colouring, of robust build, with short tails and long 

 legs, short rounded wings, and straight and tolerably 

 powerful bills. They run quickly on the ground, but 

 their flight is short and weak. For food they are said 

 to prefer grasshoppers, termites, and other insects, with 

 their larvae and pupse, and Gould thinks that probably 



