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Show 632 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON THE [Nov. 17, figured (badly) in ' The Ibis ' for 1874 (p. 103). The general colour of this bird above is reddish sand-colour, varied with black centres to the feathers; and the under surface is likewise deep sandy rufous with white throat and triangular chest-spots (wing 3-0). This specimen was shot at Potchefstroom by Mr. Ayres, on the 16th of June, 1872, and is a female. Another female, killed by Mr. Andersson at Ondonga on the 1st of November, 1867, is in what I take to be the winter dress of the bird. The general colour is a sandy buff, with no rufous tinge to speak of, but with narrow blackish centres to the feathers; and the under surface is buffy white tinged with sandy rufous on the chest, which is streaked with narrow little spots of blackish brown : the throat and sides of the face are white, with a blackish malar stripe forming an indistinct moustache. I think there can be no doubt of this being the winter plumage of A. conirostris. The difference of being more mealy is usual in the winter dress of Larks; and the proportions fairly agree (wing 2-85, tarsus 0*75). Two male specimens are in m y own collection from the Hountop River, Great Namaqua Land, shot by Mr. Andersson on the 3rd of June, 1862. These birds are intermediate between the winter and summer specimens described. They are rather mealy in appearance; but the dark centres to the feathers of the upper surface are becoming somewhat pronounced, and several of the dark chest-spots are developing, appearing as if the summer plumage were gained by the wearing-off of the sandy margins. These birds have the wing 2-9-3*0 inches, and the tarsus 075. The white on the outer tail-feathers varies very much in extent. In this young specimen it occupies the outer web and half of the inner one, as it does also in Wahlberg's Transvaal skin and the Ondonga female ; but in the full-plumaged bird in Mr. Gurney's collection, and in both the Namaqua examples the sandy white is confined to the outer web and forms a narrow margin to the tail. Young. Above dark brown, the feathers washed with sandy colour and tipped with white; the hind neck inclining to ashy grey, the white tips almost imperceptible ; wing-coverts dull brown margined with sand-colour and ending in a white tip ; quills and tail much as in adult, but inclining to whitish at the tips of the feathers ; lores dusky blackish ; sides of face nearly uniform brown, with a blackish streak running along the upper margin of the ear-coverts and down the cheeks ; under surface pale isabelline, the throat spotted with dusky, and having on each side a moustachial streak of the same, the breast inclining to sandy brown on the sides and obscurely spotted with dusky. Hab. Caffraria, and the Transvaal (summer) to Damara Land (winter). Specimens examined. E mus. Brit.:-a, ad. Near Wilson's Fountain, Damara Land (C. J. Andersson). b, c, 3 • Hountop River, Great Namaqua Land, May 27, 1862 (C. J. A.). E mus. R.B. S.:-a, 2 ad. Transvaal (Wahlberg). b, 3 ad. |
