3G0 Dr. It. B. Sharpe on Birds 



It will be noticed that this set of skins was procured 

 between February and September, and that none were col- 

 lected between October and January, when the birds would 

 be breeding. There is, however, no appreciable difference 

 between specimens killed in March and August. 



The fine series of specimens obtained by Messrs. Seimund 

 and Grant causes me to modify my opinion with regard to 

 Alamort semitorquata. They have been procured throughout 

 the different months of the year and present a wonderful 

 uniformity of plumage, so that the idea that the Deelfontein 

 specimens could represent the winter dress of the eastern 

 red form [A. semitorquata of Smith) must be abandoned. 



There seem to be five races of these Larks. The one from 

 the western end of the Cape Colony is Certhilauda subcoru- 

 nata Smith. The type seems not to have come to the British 

 Museum^ but the figure in the ' Illustrations ' (plate xc. fig. 2) 

 leaves no doubt as to the species, which is the Deelfontein 

 bird. It is of a dark vinous colour, Avith broad blackish 

 stripes on the head and back. The throat is white, with a 

 few triangular blackish spots on the lower part, which 

 spots become much larger on the fore-neck and chest, while 

 tlic breast and flanks have very distinct linear streaks of 

 blackish. 



In Natal and the Transvaal the form of Alamort is much 

 more rufous above and more uniform, the stripes on the back 

 being often obsolete and occasionally entirely absent. The 

 throat is buffy whitish and the breast and flanks unstreaked 

 and buffj'' or vinous in colour. The spots on the fore-neck and 

 chest are fewer in number and consist of light brown trian- 

 gular marks of small size. This form must bear the name of 

 A. semitorquata (Smith). 



Then there is a third form from the Orange River, of 

 which the Museum possesses three specimens collected by the 

 late Dr. Bradshaw. This is light rufous above like the fore- 

 going bird, but with narrower and less pronounced blackish 

 shaft-streaks. The spots on the fore-neck and chest are few 

 in number as in A. semitorquata, and they are as distinct 

 as in A. subcoronata, but there are no blackish streaks on the 



