336 CAPT. SHELLEY ON BIRDS FROM souTH AFRICA. [Mar. 21, 
4, On some new Species of Birds from South Africa. 
By Captain G. E. SHeviey. 
[Received March 10, 1882. ] 
(Plate XVIII.) 
On peace being proclaimed with the Boers, Major E. A. Butler, 
Major H. W. Feilden, and Captain Savile Reid were quartered for 
about nine months at Newcastle, Natal. Here they not only made 
some very valuable collections of birds, but took a large amount of 
notes referring to over 230 species, which they intend shortly to 
publish. Meanwhile they have permitted me to describe here the 
new species brought home. 
These I propose to name Anthus butlert (a very interesting 
yellow-breasted Pipit) and Spheneacus natalensis, the Natal repre- 
sentative of S. africanus, to which I will add the characters of S. 
intermedius, au intermediate form from Kaffraria. 
ANTHUS BUTLERI, sp. nov. (Plate XVIII.) 
Compared with Macronyx croceus, the upper parts and the 
wings both above and beneath are similarly coloured ; but the crown 
is faintly tinted with yellow, and the under wing-coverts are of a 
slightly paler sulphur-yellow ; a white patch just in front of the eye; 
sides of the head and neck brown, with a few dark-centred feathers 
towards the throat; chin, throat, and upper half of the breast yel- 
low ; remainder of the underparts tawny buff with a slight yellow 
shade down the centre of the abdomen ; the feathers of the crop and 
sides of the chest are mostly with black central streaks, and are very 
slightly tinted with brown; flanks inclining to rufous-brown; sides 
of the belly rather indistinctly striped with rufous-brown; under 
tail-coverts with dark brown centres ; under surface of the tail 
brown, with white on the outer two pairs of feathers; the outer 
pair white, margined on their inner webs with a brown patch of the 
same form as the feather itself. Iris dark brown; upper mandible 
horny brown, lower one lavender-colour; legs pale brown. Total 
length 7°2 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 3°25, tail 3, tarsus 1, middle toe 
without claw 0:7. November 9, Newcastle. 
Four other specimens (one collected 6th June, and two males and 
a female, July) are apparently in the winter plumage, and differ from 
the one above-described in having no shade of yellow on the head, 
in the under surface of the body being tawny buff, only very slightly 
tinted with yellow on the middle of the breast and fading into white 
on the centre of the throat and chin. The yellow on the wings is 
about the same in them all; and this, together with the peculiar 
Macronyz-like dark mottling on the back, are characters by which 
the species may be readily recognized. In the specimen collected in 
