ALAUDID2E 191 



Length 5-45; wing 3-00; tail 225 ; tarsus 0-70; culmen 0-40. 

 Adult female. Similar to the male in colour but slightly smaller. 

 The summer and winter plumages are nearly alike, in the former 

 the birds are somewhat browner, in the latter greyer. 

 Young. Eesemble the female very closely in colour. 

 Distribution. Somewhat locally distributed in Cape Colony but 

 generally common where found, as in the Karroo and on the Orange 

 River. It is more abundant towards the north and north-east 

 districts of the Colony. To the north it ranges across the Orange 

 River into Beclmana, Great Namaqua and Damara Lands ; to the 

 east into the Orange Free State, Natal and the Transvaal. 



Habits. Mr. Layard describes this species as, " Common about 

 Nel's Poort, flying in small flocks and feeding on small grass seeds 

 and insects. It has a short lively song. Its nest is cup-shaped, 

 constructed in a low bush. Eggs white spotted in a ring with 

 obscure ill-defined cloudy blotches and pin-point dots of purplish 

 brown. Axis 1'" ; diameter 51'"." 



The eggs described by Mr. Layard as of this bird appear to be 

 those of some other species, as a clutch from a nest in the Karroo 

 on which I snared the hen do not at all resemble his description 

 either as regards size or colour. They are pale bluish-white rather 

 heavily clouded and spotted with brownish-yellow and red and 

 measure 0*72 x 0'60. The cup-shaped nest was built of dry grass 

 in a hollow at the foot of a bush. The resemblance of this Bunting 

 to a Lark is not only in colour, it extends to some of its habits, for 

 it runs and crouches on the ground just like one of the latter birds. 



Andersson writes : " This species is common in Damara and 

 Great Namaqua Land ; but as it frequently resorts to the ground in 

 search of seeds and insects, it often thus escapes observation ; it is 

 gregarious, and is partial to broken ground or its immediate vicinity, 

 and also to the neighbourhood of water, which it appears to require 

 pretty constantly." 



Family VJ. AL AUDIOES. 



Bill extremely variable, slender and warbler-like in Lullula ; 

 long, slender and curved in Certhilauda; short, deep and finch-like 

 in Pyrrhulauda ; extraordinarily stout in Rhamphocorys, with many 

 intermediate forms. Nostrils open, as in Mirafra, or concealed 

 by a tuft of bristly feathers directed forwards, as in Calendula. 



