Short-clawed Lark

SCI Name:  Certhilauda chuana
Protonym:  Alauda chuana Rep.Exped.Centr.Afr. p.46
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Alaudidae / Certhilauda
Taxonomy Code:  shclar1
Type Locality:  'country beyond Latakoo''.
Author:  Smith, A
Publish Year:  1836
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

CERTHILAUDA
(Alaudidae; Ϯ Cape Long-billed Lark C. curvirostris) Genus Certhia Linnaeus, 1758, treecreeper; genus Alauda Linnaeus, 1758, lark; "CERTHILAUDA.  ...   Bill moderate, slender, curved.  Nostrils roundish.  Wings . . . ?  Tail rather short, even. Feet moderate; nail of the hind toe short, straight.  Type. L'Alouette Sirli. Levaill., Ois. pl. 192.  My specimen of this bird is deficient in some of its quill feathers." (Swainson 1827); "Certhilauda Swainson, 1827, Zool. Journ., 3, p. 344. Type, by original designation, l'Alouette Sirli of Levaillant = Alauda curvirostris Vieillot." (Peters, 1960, IX, p. 24).
Var. Certhialauda, Certhilanda, Cethilanda.
Synon. Corydalis, Heterocorys, Pseudocorys, Thinotretis, Toxocorys.

chuana
Probably a toponym (cf. "The names given by the Natives to the objects above described, I have adopted as the trivial ones" (A. Smith 1836)).  The locality of Chue or Heuning Vlei is referred to several times in Smith’s diary (Kirby 1939).  Skead 1967b, and Clinning 1989, confirm that Chue or Chui was a water-hole northeast of Latakoo (= Takoon), Cape Colony, and was the furthest point reached by Burchell in 1812.  Skead 1967b, also mentions that Chuan was an alternative name for Kurrichane.  According to Cole 1990, “possibly, but doubtfully, from the stem of (Be)chuana” (Certhilauda).