ALAUDID^J MIEAFRA 215 



Iris hazel ; bill horn-coloured ; legs and feet reddish-brown. 



Length 5-90; wing 3-10 ; tail 2-50; tarsus 0- 85 ; culmen 0-60. 



Distribution. From the Transvaal to Damara Land. A very 

 common resident in the North-western Transvaal. 



Habits. This Lark frequents open glades in thorny bush, and 

 runs much on the ground in search of the small seeds and insects 

 on which it feeds. It is usually in small flocks or single pairs. 

 In spring it frequently mounts into the air "on quivering wing," 

 and sings melodiously until it sinks again to the ground. It breeds 

 abundantly in the Transvaal in the neighbourhood of the Limpopo 

 and Marico Eivers. A hole is scratched in the ground under shelter 

 of a tuft of grass, and this is lined with dry grass ; many of the 

 surrounding grass-blades are bent over the nest and intertwined with 

 long pieces of dry grass, so as to shelter it from above, a side 

 entrance being left for the ingress and egress of the bird. From 

 two to four eggs are deposited about the first week in December. 

 These vary considerably, but are usually of a pale bluish ground 

 colour, mottled and speckled all over with different shades of 

 reddish-brown and grey or slate-colour, the spots frequently forming 

 a zone round the greatest diameter. They average O80 x O62. 



^^ 

 121. Mirafra cheniana. Latakoo Lark. 



Mirafra cheniana, Smith, III. Zool. S. Afr. Aves, pi. 89, fig. 2 (1843) ; 



Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. pp. 528, 852 (1884) ; id. Cat. 



B. M. xiii, p. 603 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 15 (1896). 

 Megalophonus chenianus Gray, Gen. B. ii, 382 (1844) ; Layard, B. S. 



Afr. p. 214 (1867). 



Description. Adult. Above, dark brown, the feathers with rufous 

 margins, the wing- coverts with black bases, the greater coverts 

 dark brown with rufous margins; quills dark brown with broad 

 margins of rufous ; upper tail-coverts dark brown with paler edges, 

 two centre tail-feathers dark brown with rufous margins ; the two 

 outermost white with a spot of brown on the base of the outer 

 and covering most of the inner web of the penultimate feather, 

 rest of tail-feathers dark brown ; eyebrow and feathers below eye 

 buff; ear-coverts rufous mottled with brown; sides of neck and 

 cheeks white mottled with brown ; throat dull white ; rest of under 

 surface pale rufous-brown tinged with deeper rufous on the chest, 

 flanks and thighs, the chest spotted with triangular marks of 

 dark brown, the sides streaked ; under wing-coverts and inner web 

 of quills rufous. 



