218 ALAUDIDJE MIRAFRA 



grey mottled with black; back of neck paler grey; wing-coverts 

 margined with grey ; inner secondaries dark brown edged with 

 grey ; remaining quills brown edged with rufous ; tail-feathers dark 

 brown tipped with white, the two centre feathers tinged with rufous 

 and grey and crossed by broken bars of black ; below reddish-buff, 

 slightly spotted with dusky on the throat and chest. 



Adult female. Like the male in colour, but slightly smaller. 



Distribution. Cape Colony, where it is common in nearly all 

 the western districts and as far to the east as Port Elizabeth, in 

 the neighbourhood of which town it is not rare, but its range does 

 not extend much further to the eastward. It is found also in 

 Griqualand West and in Bechuanaland and has been recorded from 

 Angola by Anchieta. 



Habits. Like all the Mirafra this species frequents not only 

 the open country but also ground studded with clumps of bushes 

 on which it readily perches if disturbed ; sometimes, however, it runs 

 along the ground for a long distance in front of an intruder, crouch- 

 ing at intervals until closely approached, then running on as before. 

 Like other Larks it feeds on small seeds and insects. 



Layard writes that this species " is well known from its singular 

 habit of rising fifteen or thirty feet into the air, perpendicularly, 

 making a sharp cracking sound with its wings as it rises, uttering 

 a long shrill ' phew,' and then falling as abruptly to the earth. 

 This action it will repeat at intervals of a minute or two, for an 

 hour or more, chiefly during dull mornings, but in bright weather 

 it commences before and after sunset. It delights in warm sandy 

 soils; but we met with it on the high table-land of the Cold 

 Bokkeveld in considerable abundance." 



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124. Mirafra rufipilea. Rufous -headed Lark. 



L'Alouette a calotte rousse, Levaill, Ois. d'Afr. iv. pi. 198 (1805). 



Alanda rufipilea, Vieill. N. Diet, i, p. 345 (1816). 



Brachonyx pyrrhonota, Smith, III. Zool. S. Afr. Birds, pi. 110, fig. 2 



(1847). 

 Megalophorms rufipileus, Gray, Gen. B. ii, p. 382 (1844) ; Layard, 



B. S. Afr. p. 211 (1867). 

 Mirafra rufipilea, Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 641 ; id. ed. Layard's B. S. 



Afr. p. 517 (1884) ; id. Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 597 (1890) ; Shelley, B. 



Afr. i, p. 15 (1896). 



Description. Adult male. Above, reddish-brown, most of the 

 feathers barred with black and tipped with white ; mantle brighter 



