Genus MIEAFEA*. 

 Bill stout and curved, deep at the base ; the culmen keeled. Nostrils elongated and exposed. 

 Wings moderate, rounded ; the 1st quill vmusually long, the 2nd shorter than the 3rd, which is 

 the longest, 4th and 5th longer than the 2nd. Tail short, emarginate, the lateral feathers longer 

 than the central pair. Tarsus long, covered in front with transverse scales and behind with 

 obsolete plates ; middle toe and claw shorter than the tarsus ; hind claw long and curved. 



MIEAFEA AFFINIS. 



(THE MADRAS BUSH-LARK.) 



Mirafra affinis, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. xiii. pt. 2, p. 136 (1844) ; id. 111. 

 Ind. Orn. pi. 38 (1847) ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 133 (1849) ; Layard & Kelaart, 

 Cat. Ceylon B. Prodromus, App. p. 59 (1S52) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, 

 xiii. p. 259 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 475 (1856); Jerdon, B. of 

 Ind. ii. p. 417 (1863) ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 465 ; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 422 ; 

 Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 474 (1874); Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 399; Fairbank, 

 Str. Feath. 1877, p. 40S ; Ball, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 223. 



The Lark, Europeans in Ceylon. Eeli-jitta, Telugu ; Leepee, in Central India ; Chirchira, 

 Hind. (Jerdon). 



Gomarita, Sinhalese. 



Adult main mi'/ female. Length 5 - 8 to G'-l inches ; wing 3 - to 3"35 ; tail 1*6; tarsus 1*0 to 1*15; middle toe and 

 claw - 9 to 1*0; hind toe - 4, claw 0'6. Females average smaller than males. 



Iris varying from reddish to yellowish brown; eyelid brownish fleshy ; bill, upper mandible dark brown, margin and 

 the lower mandible, with the exception of the dusky tip, fleshy ; gape fleshy ; legs and feet fleshy, edges of scales 

 brownish. 



\ I i«>ve sepia-brown, margined on the head with fulvous-buff, on the back and rump with fulvescent greyish, and on 

 the hind neck and wing-coverts with buff-white, imparting a whitish appearance to the former part : quills and 

 tail sepia-brown; secondaries and all but the outer primaries, which have pale edges, margined with rufous, and 

 with the margin and the basal portion of the inner webs the same ; outer and most of the inner web of the lateral 

 rectrice buff, and the margins of the next two the same; supercilium buff: lores dusky ; ear-coverts and cheeks 

 tipped with brown : beneath fulvous-white, the feathers of the lower part of the throat and chest with broad sepia- 

 brown centres ; flanks shaded with rufescent; under wing-coverts shining pale rufous. 



i'limii/. In nest-plumage the bill is paler than in the adult, the under mandible being mostly fleshy. The feathers 

 of the head and back rounded at the tips, and the margins rufous on the head and buff on the back ; tertials w ith 

 bright but narrow margins, and not blending into the brown, as in the adult; upper tail-coverts margined with 

 rufous : beneath whiter than in the adult ; the chest with numerous dark " drops," and the feathers on the centre 

 of the throat tipped with blackish ; thighs rufescent ■; outer tail-feathers with conspicuous rufous margins, the 

 inner web entirely brown, which colour gradually decreases with age. 



Obs. Four examples in my possession from the Madras Presidency measure from 3 - l to 3 - 3 inches in the wing ; they 



1 The Bush-Larks in the possession of an abnormally long 1st primary seem to have affinities with some of the 

 round-winged Turdoid series, and are just as awkward members of this puzzling family to deal with as the nine-primary 

 Crested and 8and-Larks, which appear to grade towards the Pipits. 



