ALAUDID.E MIRAFBA 209 



habit of perching on low bushes when frightened. These Larks 

 feed on small grass-seeds and insects, and like most of their con- 

 geners, occasionally sing very sweetly, sometimes from the top of a 

 bush, more often while hovering a few yards above the ground. In 

 the Transvaal they breed in December. A hollow, about three 

 inches deep, is scratched by the side of a grass-tuft, and lined with 

 fine dry grass, and in it, about the middle of December, are 

 deposited three eggs of a greyish ground colour, profusely speckled 

 and spotted all over with brown and purplish-brown. They measure 

 about 0-78 x 0-58. 



a4^fruj 7LSL*^>~t^ 

 116. Mirafra nsevia. Dark-lined Lark. 



Alauda naevia, StricU. Contr. Orn, 1852, p. 152. 



Megalophonus nsevius, Gurney in Andersson's B. Damara Land, p. 199 



(1872). 

 Megalophonus sabota, Gurney in Andersson's B. Damara Land, p. 195 



(1872). 

 Mirafra naevia, Sliarpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr., p. 524 (1884) ; id. Cat 



B. M. xiii, p. 617 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr., i, p. 16 (1896). 



Adult male in summer. Above, reddish-brown streaked with 

 dark brown ; crown paler ; hind neck ash-brown ; scapulars dark 

 brown margined with rufous ; wing- coverts like the back ; quills 

 black edged with rufous externally and tipped with grey ; upper 

 tail- coverts rufous streaked with brown and tipped with buff ; tail 

 black margined and tipped with buff, the centre feathers Broadly 

 edged with rufous ; eyebrow, feathers below eye and lores whitish ; 

 feathers in front of eye dusky ; ear-coverts dark brown streaked with 

 buff ; cheeks and under surface of body white tinged with buff on 

 the chest and sides, the lower throat and chest marked with 

 triangular spots of brown ; under wing-coverts lead-colour. 



Iris hazel ; bill horn-coloured ; legs and feet flesh-colour. 



Length 6-50 ; wing 3*50 ; tail 2-35 ; tarsus O95 ; culmen 0-75. 



Adult male in winter. Paler than in summer; the hind-neck 

 distinctly grey, the eyebrow more distinctly white ; the chest 

 narrowly streaked with pale brown. 



Adult female. Similar to the male in plumage but smaller. 



Length 5'75 ; wing 340 ; tail 2-35. 



Distribution. From Northern Cape Colony and Griqualand 

 West to Damara Land and Ondongo. 



Habits. Andersson gives the following account of this Lark 

 14 



