258 



with argus brown; chin and upper throat white; lower throat and breast 

 slightly suffused with tawny and flecked with elongated tear-shaped spots of 

 dark Brussels brown; rest of underparts whitish, lightly washed with pale 

 buff; under wing coverts pale buffy; bill and feet apparently pinkish brown in 

 life; the maxilla darker reddish along the culmen and basally. 



Measurements. 



Wing 84 mm. 



Tail 60.5 mm. 



Culmen from the base 14 mm. 



Tarsus 22 mm. 



Hind toe without claw 7 mm. 



Claw 6 mm. 



Range. — Known only from the type locality. 



Remarks. — The discovery in northeastern Africa of a lark so 

 closely related to a South African species is of zoogeographic 

 interest, especially inasmuch as it is not the only case of its 

 kind. Larks are among the most sedentary of African birds, 

 and consequently are reliable indices of faunal relationships. 

 The similarity between the avifauna of the northeastern and the 

 southern parts of the African continent, as expressed by the 

 larks, may be summarized as follows: 



• 1. Mirafra passerina of South Africa has as its nearest relative 

 M. pulpa of Ethiopia. 



2. Heteromirafra ruddi of South Africa is represented in 

 British Somaliland by H. archeri, and the genus is unknown 

 elsewhere. 



3. The genus Certhilauda is represented in South Africa by 

 two species, curvirostris and albofasciata; in Somaliland by one, 

 somalica, and does not occur elsewhere. 



4. The genus Ammomanes is likewise found only in northern 

 (west to the French Sahara and the Cape Verde Islands) and in 

 southern Africa, being represented in the former region by the 

 species cinctura and deserti, and in the latter by grayi. It is 

 true that A. cinctura occurs west to the Cape Verde Islands, but 

 the center of distribution of the genus is in northeastern Africa. 



5. Eremopteryx verticalis of South Africa finds its nearest 

 relative in E. signata of British Somaliland, southern Ethiopia, 

 and adjacent parts of northern Kenya Colony. 



6. The genus Spizocorys occurs only in South Africa and in 

 Somaliland. In the former region it is represented by three 

 species, — conirostris, starki, and sclateri, and in the latter by one, 



