ALAUDID^ MARAFRA 207 



114. Mirafra nigricans. DmTcy Lark. 



Alauda nigricans, Sundev. (Efv. K. Vet.-Akad. Forh. Stockh., 1850, 



p. 99. 

 Mirafra nigricans, Sharpe, P. Z. ., 1874, p. 651; id. ed. Layard's 



B. S. Afr., p. 530 (1884) ; id. Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 619 (1890) ; Bocage, 



Orn. Angola, p. 376, pi. viii, fig. 1 (1881) ; Ayres, Ibis, 1884, p. 231 ; 



1886, p. 290; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 16 (1896). 



Description. Adult male in winter. Above, ashy-black, the 

 feathers broadly edged with rufous ; wing-coverts, quills and tail- 

 feathers black broadly margined with rufous, the secondaries and 

 inner primaries tipped with white ; eyebrow white ; lores and 

 feathers below eye whitish ; ear- coverts black and white ; line below 

 the lores and from the bill to the ear-coverts black ; a malar line 

 black ; cheeks and lower surface of body dirty white, the lower 

 throat and breast thickly marked with triangular black spots 

 becoming streaks on the lower breast ; flanks mottled black and 

 white ; under wing-coverts black edged with white ; quills below 

 dusky becoming rufous at the base of the inner webs. 



Iris hazel ; bill dusky ; legs and feet yellowish. 



Length of skin 7-40 ; in flesh 8-00; wing 4-75; tail 2-95 ; tarsus 

 1-15; culmenO-70. 



Adult male in summer. Almost entirely black owing to the 

 paler edges to the feathers being abraded. 



Distribution. From the Transvaal through the Makalaka 

 Country to Benguela. Originally discovered by Professor Wahlberg 

 on the Limpopo River in the Transvaal, and subsequently obtained 

 by Dr. Bradshaw in the Makalaka country, and by Anchieta at 

 Humbe in Benguela. Not uncommon in the Transvaal near 

 Potchefstroom and Eustenburg. 



Habits. Mr. T. Ayres writes in the " Ibis " for 1884 regarding 

 a male of this somewhat rare Lark, shot on January 10 : " This, 

 to me, exceedingly scarce bird was shot amongst the hills to the 

 north of Rustenburg, within six miles of the Crocodile River ; it 

 was a solitary bird, running on some flat rocks with much shelter- 

 ing scrub about, and very Pipit-like in its appearance and manners." 

 " Stomach contained locusts." In the " Ibis " for 1886 he remarks 

 regarding another example also killed on January 10 : " This is 

 the second specimen of M. nigricans which I have met with. I 

 found it amongst the scrubby bush on a rocky range of hills, some 

 couple of miles from the banks of the Mooi River and about twenty 



