BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 



273 



except in the breeding season when the flocks disband and the birds 

 pair off. 



On April 8 at Gato River near Gardula, Mearns found a nest of 

 this bird with two eggs. The nest was a loosely constructed affair 

 of small sticks or twigs. One egg was pipped, with the young ready 

 to emerge. The other egg measured 25 by 18.5 mm. The ground 

 color was olive-buff, with rounded spots and specks of dark brown 

 only on the large end, and mostly forming a circle near that end, with 

 paler underlying spots. The female bird was sitting very closely 

 when approached, and it was only when Doctor Mearns came very 

 near that she left the nest. Both parent birds were collected, as well 

 as the nest and eggs. 



Apparently the eggs of this shrike are rather variable, or are 

 different in the different subspecies, for van Someren ** describes the 

 eggs of L. e. excuhitorim in Uganda as "creamy pink with red-brown 

 spots and greyish underlying markings, all towards the larger end." 



Besides the actual specimens collected Mearns noted this shrike as 

 follows: Gidabo River, March 15-17, 10 seen; Abaya Lakes, March 

 18-26, 250; between the Abaya Lakes and Gardula, March 26-29, 20 

 birds; Gato River near Gardula, March 29-May 17, 500 noted; Anole 

 village, May 18, 2 seen. 



Table 53. — Measurements of 10 specimens of Lanius excubitorius intercedens 



from Ethiopia 



LANIUS SENATOR NILOTICUS (Bonaparte) 



Enneoctonus niloticus Bonapaete, Rev. Mag. Zool., 1853, p. 439: White Nile. 

 Specimens collected : 



1 female, Chobi, Ethiopia, December 23, 1911. 



1 male, 1 female, Hawash River, Ethiopia, February 12, 1912. 



The woodchat shrike is a wide-ranging palearctic species that oc- 

 curs in Africa only as a migrant and winter visitor. It contains 

 three races, as follows : 



1. L. s. senator: This form has the central pair of rectrices black 

 to the base and has the primaries white basally. Breeding range — 



"Ibis, 1916, p. 395. 



