Somali Long-billed Lark

SCI Name:  Mirafra somalica
Protonym:  Certhilauda somalica Bull.Br.Orn.Club 14 p.29
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Alaudidae / Mirafra
Taxonomy Code:  slblar1
Type Locality:  Dibbit, Somaliland [Col. PI., Ibis, 1905, pi. 10, p. 512].
Author:  Witherby
Publish Year:  1903
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).

somalensis / somalica / somalicum / somalicus / somaliensis
Somaliland / Somalia (from the pastoral Samaale inhabitants of the region).

SUBSPECIES

Somali Long-billed Lark (somalica)
SCI Name: Mirafra somalica somalica
somalensis / somalica / somalicum / somalicus / somaliensis
Somaliland / Somalia (from the pastoral Samaale inhabitants of the region).

Somali Long-billed Lark (rochei)
SCI Name: Mirafra somalica rochei
rochei
Dr Jean-Claude Roche (b. 1931) French ornithologist (subsp. Mirafra somalica).