MOTACILLID^: 235 



edged with white externally ; lores, eyebrow, and cheeks, buff ; the 

 cheeks spotted ; throat white ; under surface rufous, the breast 

 with small brown spots ; under wing-coverts rufous. 



Iris dark hazel ; bill dusky ; legs and feet pale brown. 



Length 6-10; wing 3*70; tail 2-60 ; tarsus 1-15 ; culmen 0-85. 



Adult female. Similar to the male in colour but smaller and 

 with a smaller bill. 



Length 5-55 ; wing 3-50 ; tail 2-15 ; tarsus 1-10 ; culmen 0'75. 



Young. The feathers of the upper surface spotted at the ends 

 with white preceded by black ; hind neck fulvous ; wing-coverts 

 margined with white ; lores, small eyebrow and throat white ; 

 under surface of body pale rufous, the breast slightly spotted with 

 brown. 



Distribution. Northern and Eastern Cape Colony ; Great 

 Namaqua Land ; Natal, the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and 

 Griqualand West, ranging into Southern Bechuanaland. 



Habits. Like the other long-billed Larks this species keeps 

 much to the ground in rather open and stony localities. Here it 

 runs with great swiftness and endeavours to escape detection by 

 suddenly stopping and crouching on the ground in spots that 

 assimilate in colour with its plumage, and this manoeuvre is fre- 

 quently successful. The flight of this Lark is undulating ; its note 

 is a loud and prolonged whistle. It feeds on a great variety of 

 small insects and also on grass and other seeds picked up on the 

 ground. 



Mr. T. Ayres found this species breeding in the Transvaal ; the 

 nest " was placed under a tuft of grass, and was composed of rough 

 grass outwardly, lined with roots of fine grass, and partially arched 

 over with the rough grass of which the outer portion of the nest 

 was constructed. It contained two eggs, one of which was larger 

 than the other; and although I left the nest for two days after 

 finding it, no other eggs were laid." 



Family VII. MOTACILLDm 



This family includes the Long-claws, Pipits and Wagtails, birds 

 which differ from one another considerably in plumage and style of 

 colouration but which are structurally alike. 



The bill is long and slender, the edges of both mandibles smooth 

 with the exception of a notch near the tip of the upper ; rictal 



