478 Mr. R, B. Sharpe on Birds from Fao. 



Niam country, where it was met with by Signer Piaggia. 

 Von Heuglin seems not to have come across the species in 

 life ; and beyond the fact that a specimen was in the British 

 Museum from the White Nile, and three specimens collected 

 by Botta were in the Leiden Museum^ no other locality was 

 known until Mr. Blanford received a specimen from Sind 

 ('Ibis/ 1875, p. 387). Unfortunately no date of capture is 

 given of the last-named example. A specimen obtained by 

 Dr. O. T. Duke, on the 20th of April, at Nal in Kelat, is in 

 the Hume Collection ; it is apparently an adult female. 



The male is properly described by Von Heuglin in his 

 ' Ornithologie Nordost-Afrika's/ with the exception of the 

 colour of the quills, which are said to be pure white at the 

 ends, whereas, as Mr. Blanford has already pointed out, the 

 outer primaries are shaded with brown at the ends. 



My description of the adult male in the ' Catalogue ' 

 (vol. iii. p. 316) appears to be correct; but coming from 

 Africa the specimen is doubtless in winter plumage, and the 

 colours are not quite so clear as in the breeding-plumage — 

 that is to say that the back is purer grey, the isabelline and 

 black of the crown are both more intense, and the colours of 

 the underparts also rather richer in the birds from Fao. 

 The bill is yellowish with a horny brown tip, in the White- 

 Nile bird; but whether this is an evidence of winter dress or 

 is due to exposure to the light in our gallery, I cannot say 

 for certain. In the breeding males the bill is jet-black. 



The female in breeding-plumage differs from the male, as 

 described by Von Heuglin, in wanting the black on the 

 head and face, as well as on the wings, the primaries being 

 brown to the ends, edged and fringed at the tips with greyish 

 white; the tail-feathers ashy grey or drab, with narrow 

 whitish tips, the feathers being subterminally blackish, but 

 not to the same extent as in the male. 



[Arriving from S.E. early in April. First individuals 

 observed in 1884 were a small flock of six birds flying over 

 telegraph buildings on the 10th of April. On the 11th my 

 collector brought me a female that he had shot. 



It is not till the middle of June that they breed. 



