196 ALAUDIDJE PYRRHULAUDA 



Adult female. Lores and eyebrow huffish ; throat white ; under 

 surface white tinged with rufous, otherwise like the male. 



Distribution. Northern Cape Colony, Griqualand West, and 

 the Transvaal, extending to Great Namaqua and Damara Land and 

 thence to the Congo Eiver. 



Habits. 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-seeds and small insects. If disturbed they fly for a 

 short distance, with undulating flight, and alight again 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 up and the birds separate in 

 pairs, and about a month later commence to build their nests. 

 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 umber brown. They average 

 0-80 x 0-65. 





108. Pyrrhulauda smith! . Smith's Lark. 



Pyrrhulauda leucotis (nee. Stanley) ; Smith III. Zool. S. Afr., Birds. 



pi 26 (1839) ; Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 210 (1867). 

 Pyrrhulauda smithii, Ayres, Ibis, 1871, p. 258 ; Gurney in Anderssoris 



B. Damara Land, p. 189 (1872) ; Sharpe. ed. Layard' s B. S. Afr. 



pp. 493, 851 (1884) ; id. Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 658 (1890). 

 Pyrrhulauda smithi, Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 17 (1896). 



Description. Adult male. Above, deep chestnut, the feathers 

 of lower back and scapulars edged with white ; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts grey ; least wing-coverts whitish ; median and greater 

 coverts chestnut edged with buff, the median coverts black at the 

 base ; primary coverts and quills black edged with rufous ; tail 

 black, the outer feather white on the outer web, the rest margined 

 with rufous ; crown and nape black, followed by a white and this 

 by a black collar ; lores, feathers round eye, and fore cheeks black ; 

 ear-coverts, sides of face and hind cheeks white ; a line of black 

 from the crown to the throat ; throat and under surface black ; 

 the sides brownish, the flanks white ; thighs white ; under tail and 



