

216 ALAUDID^l MIRAFKA 



Iris light reddish-brown ; upper mandible dusky, its edges and 

 the lower mandible yellowish, legs and feet pink. 



Length 5-00; wing, 3-00 ; tail 2-40; tarsus 0-90; culmen 0-50. 



Distribution. Discovered by Sir Andrew Smith near Latakoo ; 

 since obtained by Mr. T. C. Atmore on the Wittlesea Flats in 

 Eastern Cape Colony, and by Mr. T. Ayres in the Mariqua district 

 of the Transvaal and also at Potchefstroom. 



Habits. Sir Andrew Smith found this pretty little Lark on 

 grassy plains in the neighbourhood of Latakoo, running about 

 under the long grass, on the seeds of which, together with insects, 

 it was feediDg. Like the majority of Larks of this genus the present 

 species frequents both open veldt and glades surrounded by bush, 

 and perches indifferently on the ground or on bushes. Mr. T. 

 Ayres remarks: "This Lark somewhat resembles in its habits 

 the English Skylark, rising in the air in the early morning with 

 the same fluttering flight and singing sweetly all the time. I 

 observed this in the middle of February, towards the end of our 

 summer, and the birds were then in pairs. The food of this species 

 consists of small insects." 



The same observer writes in the " Ibis" for 1880, p. 264 : " This 

 is emphatically our skylark, rising in the air to a considerable 

 distance, fluttering, it pours forth its hymn of praise and does not 

 weary. It enlivens the open grass veldt in particular localities, 

 making the whole country joyous on bright days, and as these 

 Larks are numerous, one then hears a continuous song. They 

 must, however, be more or less migratory, for a month or two 

 after the breeding- season the grass-lands they inhabit are silent, 

 and the songsters are no longer there. The cock birds are of a 

 jealous disposition, and are constantly seen chasing away the 

 would-be admirers of their particular inamoratas ; the hen-birds are 

 silent and retiring, and in consequence are not easily obtained." 



122. Mirafra fischeri. Fischer's Lark. 



Megalophomis fischeri, Eeichenow, Jour. f. Orn, 1878, p. 266. 

 Mirafra apiata (nee Vieill.} Sharpe and Bouvier, Bull. Soc. Zool. 

 France, iii, p. 77 (1878) ; Sharpe, ed. Layards B. S. Afr. p. 851 

 (1884) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1882, p. 350 ; id. P. Z. S. 1888, p. 28. 

 Mirafra fischeri, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 600 (1890) ; Shelley, B. 



Afr., i. p. 15 (1896). 

 " Quatji," Matabili (Ayres). 



Description. Adult mole. Above, brown, the feathers with paler 

 margins ; back and scapulars cross-barred with darker brown ; 



