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bird of passage in Nortli-East Africa, wlio arrives with the first summer 

 rains, and when the breeding season is over wanders in large companies 

 about the pasture-grounds and steppes, and then disappears in December. 

 I have not seen him at any great heiglit on the mountains. He is to be 

 met with in the coast lands of Abyssinia, in the Anseba-territory, in 

 Barka, on the Mareb as far up as Serawi, in Sennaar and in Kordofan, also 

 on the White Nile and on the Sobat. We found them breeding there 

 (Samchara) in August and September, and in East Sennaar and Kordofan 

 in July and September. Bach colony has a nesting-place partitioned off, 

 of which several are often seen on a large Adansonia, Sycamore, Soap-or 

 Acacia-tree. The nest-places are used for several years ; the structure 

 itself consists of an irregular-shaped mass of coarse, dry bits of wood and 

 twigs of trees, which ai'e heaped up on forked and horizontal branches at a 

 height of 15 to 30 feet, and form a pile of 5 to 8 feet in length and 3 to 5 

 feet in width. In such quarters an isolated company of 3 to 8 pairs build, 

 and each pair forms therein its own dwelling, like the sparrow in the 

 stork's nest, and fairly deep down in the interior. This nest is thickly 

 and cleverly lined with fine grass, rushes, small roots and wool, and con- 

 tains three to four eggs, coloured much like those of the house-sparrow, 

 with rather thick rough shells, of a blunt egg shape 11 "IS lines long and 

 8^"9 in diameter. The young with their big heads and large hanging 

 bellies have an ungainly appearance, are half-naked and very greedy. 

 The old ones too, have much dirt among their feathers, are quarrelsome 

 and noisy as sparrows, and often mix with thrushes, with whom they 

 wander about the cattle pastures. Their food consists of fruits, grain, 

 beetles, and the smaller kinds of chafers, grass-hoppers, etc., and also 

 as it seems of parasitic insects, which they find on the cattle. I also often 

 saw them hunting for chafers among the offal. In the morning whole 

 colonies of them may often be heard chattering and screaming. A 

 quantity of food is brought to the young ones. Wlien shot they defend 

 themselves bravely with their strong bills, and their bite draws blood." 



Dr. 0. Finsch, in his paper " On Birds from North-Eastern Abyssinia 

 and the Bogos Country," published in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological 



