634 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON THE [Nov. 17, 



legs and toes brownish or reddish brown; iris dark brown" (C. J. 

 Andersson). 



Total length 6-2 inches, culmen 0-55, wing 3*9, tail 2v, tarsus 

 0-85. 



Adult female. Coloured like the male. Total length 6*2 inches, 

 culmen 0*5, wing 3"65, tail 2'6, tarsus - 85. 



The description is taken from a pair of birds collected, and sexed 

 by my friend Mr. Ayres. They are both, I take it, in full winter 

 plumage ; and I regret that I have the dates of scarcely any of my 

 specimens, which makes it difficult to determine the seasonal changes 

 of the species. Two examples, however, now before me differ 

 sufficiently in their coloration to make me believe that they are in 

 their breeding-dress ; and I therefore give the following short notes 

 on this plumage: — General colour more rufous than in winter, 

 especially on the upper tail-coverts and crown, the latter being deep 

 chestnut and the patches on the sides of the breast much larger and 

 extending farther down the sides of the body, the centre of the chest 

 being also washed with rufous. 



Young. Above blackish, some of the feathers washed with sandy 

 colour, but all of them terminally spotted or edged with creamy 

 white, producing a pretty and variegated appearance ; hind neck 

 greyish mottled with dark brown and spotted with creamy white ; 

 head blackish varied with sandy rufous bases to the feathers and 

 spotted with creamy white ; lores and a broad eyebrow whitish, as 

 also the sides of the face, which have, however, a mark of brown on 

 the cheeks under the eye, while the ear-coverts are dark brown 

 washed with rufous and spotted minutely with creamy white ; under 

 surface whitish, the breast and sides of body mottled, with dark 

 brown bases to the feathers, inclining to rufous on the sides of the 

 breast ; under wing-coverts whitish ashy ; quills brown broadly 

 margined with rufous, the outer web of external primary fulvous 

 white, the inner secondaries broadly edged with whitish ; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts bright fawn-colour spotted with white, before which 

 is a subterminal spot of dark brown ; tail blackish brown, the outer- 

 most feather white on the outer web, crossing the inner one obliquely 

 near the tip, the two centre feathers rufous near the base and mar- 

 gined with whitish towards the tip. 



Hab. Cape colony to the Transvaal and thence to Damara Land, 

 where, however, the size is rather smaller (vide infra). 



Canon Tristram has very kindly sent me the whole of his collec- 

 tion of Larks for examination ; and among them I find the type of 

 his Megalophonus anderssoni. I am sorry I cannot indorse this bird 

 as a good species ; for it is assuredly the Alauda spleniata of Strick- 

 land, and I cannot see in it any more than a small subtropical form 

 of Tephrocorys cinerea ; and as such it would bear the title of 

 Tephrocorys spleniata. The specimen identified as C. anderssoni by 

 Mr. Blanford, which bears the handwriting of Canon Tristram, 

 seems to me to be merely C. ruficeps in winter plumage (cf. Blanf. 

 Geol. & Zool. Abyss, p. 389). 



The specimen in Canon Tristram's collection measures as follows — 



