Mirafra Williamsi Bird

English Name:  Williams's Lark
Latin Name:  Mirafra williamsi
Protonym:  Mirafra williamsi Bull.Br.Orn.Club 76 p.71
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Alaudidae / Mirafra
Taxonomy Code:  willar1
Type Locality:  Marsabit, Kenya; lat. 2° 20'' N., long. 37° 55'' E.; alt. 3,000 ft.
Author:  Macdonald
Publish Year:  1956
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MIRAFRA
(Alaudidae; Ϯ Horsfield's Bush Lark M. javanica) Horsfield made great use of Javanese names, but this does not appear to be one of them (cf. Malay name Merfa for a babbler (see Malacopteron)). According to Agassiz 1842-1846, mirafra is from a native tongue. Gotch 1981, writes that the name is from L. mirus wonderful, and Afra African; the first part of this etymology may be correct, but although most forms occur in the Afrotropics Horsfield’s Bush Lark does not; "MIRAFRA ... The characters in which this genus differs from Alauda are a more robust, conical and arched bill, round nares nearly naked, and a proportionally short claw to the posterior toe. The sides of the beak, between the back (culmen) and cutting edges (tomia) are somewhat convex. In this character it has greater affinity to Fringilla than to Alauda, the bill of which is often subulate (as in Sylvia), while the nares are covered.  Mirafra, although it greatly resembles Calandra, differs from it in possessing the spurious remex, and in having the four instead of the three first remiges elongated  ...  Mirafra Javanica ...  Branjangan Javanis." (Horsfield 1821); "Mirafra Horsfield, 1821, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, 13, pt. 1, p. 159. Type, by monotypy, Mirafra javanica Horsfield." (Peters 1960, IX, 3).    
Var. Miraffra, Mirafa, Myrafra.   
Synon. Africorys, Amirafra, Anacorys, Brachonyx, Corypha, Croteoptera, Etoimus, Geocoraphus, Megalophonus, Neomirafra, Plocealauda, Spilocorydon.

mirafra
Genus Mirafra Horsfield, 1821, bush lark (syn. Mirafra javanica).

williamsi
● John George Williams (1913-1997) British ornithologist, Curator of Coryndon Mus., Nairobi (subsp. Calandrella cinerea, syn. Geokichla piaggiae tanganjicae, Mirafra, subsp. Phylloscopus umbrovirens, syn. Stelgidocichla latirostris).
● Maj. Frederic Thesiger Williams (1862-1902) British Army in India and Burma (subsp. Lophura horsfieldii).
● J. Williams (fl. 1807) English naturalist (syn. Phalaropus lobatus).