ALAUDID.E AL^MON 231 



below the eye a streak of buff ; ear-coverts cinnamon ; cheeks and 

 throat white with a few black spots ; under surface buff- white, the 

 sides tinged with rufous, the lower throat and breast thickly spotted 

 with dark brown, the sides and flanks streaked ; thighs rufous ; 

 under tail-coverts mixed white and rufous ; under wing-coverts and 

 under surface of quills ash-brown. 



Iris hazel ; bill light brown ; feet yellowish-brown. 



Length 7'20 ; wing 3-65 ; tail 3-80 ; tarsus 1-05 ; culmen O70. 



Adult in winter. Above, grey streaked with dusky ; wing- 

 coverts dark brown margined with whitish ; quills dark brown 

 edged with whitish ; rump unstreaked ; upper tail-coverts streaked 

 with dark brown ; tail dark brown, the two centre and the outer- 

 most feathers margined with brownish-white ; eyebrow and streak 

 below the eye white ; in front of eye black ; ear-coverts grey ; fore 

 parts of cheeks and throat white, with a line of black spots on 

 each side ; sides of neck and under surface of body white, the 

 lower throat and chest spotted, the sides, flanks, and under tail- 

 coverts streaked with blackish ; the sides and thighs grey ; under 

 surface of wing ash-brown ; bill and feet brownish-orange. 



Adult female. Resembles the male but is slightly smaller. 



Young. Resemble the adults in winter plumage, but are of a 

 more sandy-brown with the feathers of the upper surface edged 

 and tipped with white ; below, dull white mottled with brown. 



Distribution. South Africa : in Cape Colony from Cape Town 

 to the Orange River. Abundant in the Karroo and in Little 

 Namaqua Land, but, according to Andersson, does not range to 

 the north of the Orange River. 



Habits. Sir Andrew Smith, misled by the very distinct summer 

 and winter plumage of this Lark, described it as two distinct 

 species. He writes under the heading Alauda codea : " The 

 specimens I observed were in localities thinly furnished with low 

 brushwood, and they rarely failed, when they were disturbed in 

 these situations, to fly to a distance and then perch upon the 

 summit of some dwarf shrub, from whence they might ensure a 

 view of any person who might follow them." 



Under the heading Alauda lagepa he remarks : " This species 

 is thinly distributed between the Berg and Orange Rivers, close 

 to the western coast, and specimens are usually found on sandy 

 or Karroo plains, which are sparingly covered with brushwood. 

 It whistles occasionally in the mornings, soars like a true Lark, 

 and on descending from its aereal flights commonly perches on 



