ALAUDHXE HETEKOCORYS 227 



: 



130. Heterocorys breviunguis. Short-clawed Lark. 



Alauda breviunguis, Sund. JEfv. K. Vet.-Ak. Forh. Stock. 1850, p. 99. 

 Heterocorys breviunguis, Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 503 (1884) ; 



id. Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 524 (1890) ; id. P. Z. S. 1874, p. 626, pi. 76, 



fig. 1 ; Shelley, B. Afr., i, p. 14 (1896). 



Heterocorys breviunguis. 



Description. Adult male. Above, reddish-brown with broad 

 streaks of black, the head slightly crested ; wing-quills brown edged 

 with reddish-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts more narrowly 

 streaked than the back; tail-feathers brown edged with pale 

 reddish-brown ; lores and a wide eyebrow, sides of face, cheeks, 

 and throat bumsh-white ; ear-coverts brown ; the cheeks slightly 

 spotted with brown ; under surface whitish tinged with tawny on 

 the breast and sides ; the chest and sides of neck streaked with dark 

 brown ; under wing-coverts buff, the outer spotted with brown. 



Iris brown ; bill horn-colour ; feet pale brown. 



Length 7'00 ; wing 4-00 ; tail 3-10 ; tarsus 1-10 ; culmen 0'80. 



Distribution. Northern Cape Colony and the Transvaal. 



Habits. Of the habits of this Lark nothing has been recorded. 

 Sir Andrew Smith procured two examples in South Africa, and 

 Professor Wahlberg obtained others in the Transvaal. Since then 

 no naturalist appears to have met with it. 



