226 ALAUDID.3E HETEROCORYS 



eggs spotted with brown and dark grey. The cocks, as a rule have 

 a lively song and mellow call-note. They frequently sing on the 

 wing. 



- 

 129. Otocorys ''berlepschi. South African Horned Lark. 



Otocorys berlepschi, Hartert, J. f. 0. 1890, p. 103 ; Hartert, Ibis, 1892, 

 p. 523, pi. xiii. ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 14 (1896). 



Description. (Hartert, " Ibis," 1892.) Top and sides of the 

 head, chin, throat and upper breast black, with a faint purplish 

 gloss ; ear-coverts tipped with pale brown ; occiput, hind neck, 

 interscapular region, smaller upper wing-coverts and tail-coverts 

 bright vinaceous cinnamon ; outer and inner webs of all the 

 quills brown, faintly margined and tipped with brownish grey ; 

 tail dark brown, central pair and outer webs of lateral rectrices 

 paler brown ; lower parb bright vinaceous cinnamon, spotted with 

 brown on the breast and whitish along the middle of the abdomen. 



Total length about 6'5 inches ; wing 4-15; tail 2-8; tarsus 0'8 ; 

 culmen 0-46. 



Distribution. The specimen described above, the only one 

 known, was found by Herr Ernst Hartert in the Senckenberg 

 Museum at Frankfurt-am-Main. " A slip of paper was attached to 

 the stand of the specimen with the words ' Alauda ? Gaffe-aria.' 

 This is a somewhat uncertain locality, but I think that it is most 

 probable that the bird came from the interior of South Africa," 

 (Hartert in " Ibis," 1892.) 



Genus IX. HETEROCORYS. 



Type. 

 Heterocorys, Sharpe, P, Z.S. 1874, p. 625 H. breviunguis. 



Of the general appearance of Certhilauda, and with a similar 

 nostril, but resembling Ammomanes in its long tarsus and in the 

 proportions of its bill ; the hind claw very much curved, and shorter 

 than the hind toe. This genus contains a single species with a 

 range confined to South Africa. 



