Burmese Bushlark

SCI Name:  Mirafra microptera
Protonym:  Mirafra microptera Str.Feath. 1 p.483
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Alaudidae / Mirafra
Taxonomy Code:  burbus1
Type Locality:  Thayetmyo, Burma.
Author:  Hume
Publish Year:  1873
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).

microptera
Gr. μικροπτερα mikroptera  small-winged  < μικρος mikros  small; -πτερος -pteros  -winged  <  πτερον pteron wing.

Microptera
(syn. Scolopax Ϯ American Woodcock S. minor) Gr. μικροπτερα mikroptera  small-winged  < μικρος mikros  small; πτερος -pteros  -winged  < πτερον  pteron  wing; "Subgenus.—*MICROPTERA, (RUSTICOLA, Bonap.)  THE head more rounded than quadrate.  The wings short, and the 3 first primaries very narrow and graduated, the 4th and 5th being longest.  Legs less robust, and the hind toe nail slightly projecting over the extremity of the toe. ...  The structure of the wings is very peculiar and characteristic, nothing of the kind existing in the Woodcock of Europe. It is in consequence a bird of more retiring habits, less capable of continued flight, being often sedentary in the countries in which it breeds, and migrating short distances merely over land, as the severity of the winter season increases where it happens to reside.   ...   LESSER WOODCOCK.  (Rusticola minor, NOBIS.  Scolopax minor, GMEL. BONAP. Syn. No. 269.  WILSON, vi. p. 40. pl. 48. fig. 2.  PENN. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 463. No. 365.  Phil. Museum, No. . .)" (Nuttall 1834); "Microptera (not of Gravenhorst, 1802) Nuttall, Man. Bds. U. S. and Canada, Water Birds, p. 192, 1832 [= 1834]—type, by orig. desig., Rusticola minor = Scolopax minor Gmelin." (Hellmayr & Conover, 1948, XIII, 164).    Var. Microptes (Gr. πτην ptēn  winged).