ALAUDID^ SPIZOCORYS 219 



reddish ; wing-coverts like the back ; quills rufous for the basal 

 two thirds, brown for the terminal third ; two centre tail-feathers 

 brown with reddish margins ; rest of tail-feathers brown tipped 

 with rufous, the outer feathers edged with buff ; eyebrow and lores 

 buff ; ear-coverts rufous ; cheeks and under surface fawn-coloured, 

 the sides of neck speckled with brown, the front of neck and chest 

 thickly marked with round black spots ; under wing-coverts and 

 inner margin of quills deep cinnamon-red. 



Iris tawny-red ; bill horn-coloured ; legs and feet dusky. 



Length 5'80 ; wing 3-35 ; tail 2-60 ; tarsus TOO ; culmen 0-60. 



Adult female. Eesembles the male in plumage but is smaller. 



Young. Above, a deeper cinnamon-red waved with black bars ; 

 ear-coverts spotted with black ; throat with faint bars of brown ; 

 flanks and thighs rufous mottled with brown ; chest cinnamon with 

 a few black dots. 



Distribution. North-eastern Cape Colony, the Orange Free 

 State and the Transvaal, ranging as far north as the Zambesi where 

 a specimen was obtained by Major Serpa Pinto. 



Habits. Mr. T. Ayres writes from the Transvaal : " This Lark 

 has precisely the habits of M. apiata." " One of the birds sent (a 

 male) had evidently, from the appearance of the skin on the breast 

 and belly, taken his share in incubation ; it was shot about the end 

 of March." In the "Ibis" for 1880 he remarks: "This bird is 

 called amongst the farmers the ' Kain-bird,' as they consider it a 

 sign of rain when it rises during the breeding- season for some yards 

 in the air with a fluttering flight, descending with a loud ' whew ' 

 when this action is often repeated ; but it is very certain that the 

 same habit prevails during a succession of dry weather ; in fact it 

 is one way in which the cock bird pays its addresses to the hen, 

 and weather has very little to do with it." 



Genus VI. SPIZOCORYS. 



Type. 



Spizocorys, Sundevall, Av. Meth. Tent. p. 54 (1873)... S. conirostris. 



Bill short, somewhat thick, higher than broad at the nostrils, 

 conical ; the culmen rounded and shorter than the middle toe and 

 claw ; the nostrils beset with bristles. The outer primary of the 

 wing rudimentary, not exceeding the inner toe and claw in length, 

 the distance between the tips of the secondaries and the tips of 

 the primaries less than the length of the tarsus or hind claw. 



