On a Collection of Birds from Somali-land. 389 



Cettia pallidipes (p. 139). — A so-called Cettia, which is 

 green above and white below ! ! 



Cettia squamiceps (p. 142). — Worse and worse! This is 

 not a Cettia anyhow. 



I notice that Dr. Scully (Ibis, 1881, pp. 90, 583), in qviotiug 

 my name, Alauda guttata, for the common Sivy-Lark of Cash- 

 mere, says he can only distinguish it from A. gulgula by its 

 superior size. When freshly moulted the two birds are of 

 very different shades of brown, the Cashmere one being dull 

 purplish brown, while the bird of the plains is warm reddish 

 brown. The Sky-Larks are the most difl&cult group there is ; 

 but clearly such a bird as A. dulcivox is distinct from the 

 little A. gulgula. 



XLL — On Mr. E. Lort Phillips's Collection of Birds from 

 Somali-land. By Captain G. E. Shelley, F.Z.S. 



(Plates X.-XII.) 



Mr. E. Lort Phillips, E.Z.S., accompanied by his friends 

 Messrs. James, Aylmer, and Thrupp, left Berbera, on the 

 Gulf of Aden, on the 22nd December, 1884, and returned 

 there again towards the middle of the following April. They 

 journeyed nearly due south along the parallel 45° E. long, to 

 about 5° N. lat. On leaving Berbera they crossed for the 

 first eight miles a low flat country and then ascended to the 

 high plateau-land 3000 feet above the sea. This plateau is 

 a parched desert for about six months in the year, and it was 

 during this period that most of the specimens were collected. 

 The Egyptian Vulture, although a constant visitor to their 

 camp so long as water was obtainable, was never seen during 

 their long desert march of fourteen days between the wells of 

 Bourou and Gerlogobie, while Crows (probably Corvus affinis) 

 never failed to appear in the neighbourhood as soon as the 

 tents were pitched. Nearly all the Crows' nests contained 

 eggs of the Great Spotted Cuckoo, and in one nest there 

 were twelve eggs, four only belonging to the rightful owner. 

 The tableland, which extends from north to south for 

 about 280 miles, is dotted over with thousands of gigantic 



SER. V. vol. III. 2 E 



