— 80 — 



There were four newly laid eggs in the nest. 



1. 30.5 X 26 mm. 775 mg. 



2. 32.5 X 26.4 mm. 780 mg. 



3. 31.7 X 26.8 mm. 775 mg. 



4. 30 X 24 mm. 675 mg. 



The eggs are bright white in colour. Two of them, however, 

 have large and small brownish red spots here and there, but 

 these spots are caused by the brown laterite clay which the 

 sitting bird has had on its feathers. No doubt these brown- 

 spotted eggs are the ones first laid, as those laid later are 

 quite white. When I blew out the eggs I found — at least 

 quite plainly in one of them — that they were in different 

 stages of incubation, for in the more heavily spotted egg the 

 embryo was much more developed than in the others. It is 

 therefore probable that incubation begins as soon as the first 

 egg is laid. 



The shell is dull and smooth without any marked pores 

 and furnished with a layer of lime, which can be scraped off. 

 In this layer there are ripples and scratches. 



This bird is very shy and viligent and knows very well 

 how to hide itself on the ground in the tall grass. I seldom 

 saw it perch on any of the rare bushes, and it happened a few 

 times while I was studying the nest at a distance that the bird 

 quite suddenly be sitting in the nest without my having noticed 

 when or how it got there. When it was flushed it usually disap- 

 peared in the grass and would then rise some hundred yards 

 from the spot where it disappeared. 



The stomach was full of hairy, large, green larvae and 

 grasshoppers. 



Ceniropus superciliosus superciliosus Hempr. & Ehr. — 

 Rchw. II. p. 65. 



Tutu . . . ki-kavirondo. — Butabutelia . . . ki-kamba. — 



Tutuma . . . ki-suahili. 



1 (5 ad. 13. 4. Nairobi. — 2 S6 ad. 14. 4., 18. 4. Kiambu. - 1 ^ ad. 6. 6. 



Mount Elgon. — 1 (J ad. 22. 8. Kendu. — 1 Q ad. 21. 4. Lake Naiwasha. — 



1 Q ad. 24. 4. Kikuyu. — 1 S ad. 26. 4. Mombasa. — IQ juv. 10. 4. Nairobi. — 



1 (5 juv. 23. 8. Kendu. 



When we look at this series of 10 skins from difi'erent 

 parts of East Africa — right from Mombasa up to Victoria 

 Nyanza — we at once notice the great differences they present. 



The specimens from the coast and from the Nairobi regions 

 agree entirely with each other in the markings, although the 

 respective mesurements for the tarsns and wing vary somewhat. 

 On the other hand the two from Kendu (Victoria Nyanza) are 

 difi'erent from all the others in that the head, nape and inter- 

 scapular region are considerably darker in the latter. These parts 

 are almost blackish brown. This is true of the young bird as 



