612 
Colonel S. R. Clarke on 
[Ibis, 
Black Finch-Lark (P yrrhulauda australis). I had met with 
each of these two last-named species on only one occasion, 
when collecting carefuliy during eight months in the 
Bloemfontein district. After this short expedition we 
again took the train for Rhodesia; soon after leaving 
Mafeking the railway-line enters very loose bush-veld, and 
though I believe we passed through one or two patches of 
open country in the night before reaching Monze, it was, as 
far as we saw, bush-veld, more or less dense, over practically 
the whole of the 700 miles of the eastern fringe of the 
Kalahari and the parts of western Rhodesia traversed in our 
railway journey to Monze, which is situated in long. 27° E., 
lat. 16°50'S. 
We reached our destination on the 2nd of August about 
10 in the morning, the frost of the night had disappeared, 
and we found our tents and two wagons waiting ready 
for us. We trekked at once and crossed a rolling open 
country with grazing grass, now dry from the winter’s 
sunshine and drought, to the first water some seven miles 
west. Livingstone’s Chat ( Saxicola pileata livingstonii ) and 
a Drongo ( Dicrurus adsimilis) w^ere seen on the plain, 
auu near the water Doves and Swainson’s Francolin ( Pternistes 
swainsoni). The next morning we pushed on, the rolling 
grass-veld was left behind, and we entered a country of bush 
more or less dense interspersed with glades of open country, 
which, except on the flats by the Kafue River, were never 
of great extent. This country is, without being absolutely 
flat, very level, and dongas and streams few and far between. 
I was informed that the summer rainfall is very heavy, as 
much as 30 inches of rain hilling in January and February ; 
and, there being little surface drainage to carry off’ the water, 
the country during the summer months is waterlogged, and 
this probably accounts for the scarcity of Larks. Of these 
we only identified one species ( Teplirocorys saturatior); of 
Pipits one ( Ant/ius sordidus nyassce) ; also one Macronyx , the 
beautiful M. ivmtoni, which so far as w 7 e observed was 
confined to the flats by the Kafue River. Bustards were also 
scarce, and we only killed Otis melanogaster ; of Francolins, 
