83 Dr. von Heuglin on the Malurinse 



nostril there spring on each side two strong rictal bristles ; the 

 middle toe, with the claw, is rather longer than the tarsus ; 

 thefeet are powerful, the claws moderately long, but fine and acute; 

 the hind claw is as long as the hind toe itself; the wings are 

 round, not very short, but only passing the root of the tail by 

 a few lines. The tail in this genus is most remarkably deve- 

 loped, with a broad uropygium, exceedingly bi'oad and soft and 

 somewhat dishevelled coverts, and long, very broad, gradu- 

 ated, and fan-like rectrices. 



This bird lives in the widely extended and almost impass- 

 able deserts at the parent-lake of the Gazelle River ; I only 

 saw it there very rarely, as it is unwilling to quit its retreat, 

 climbs about among the reeds like a Reed-Warbler, and endea- 

 vours to conceal itself in them. Its peculiar note, distantly 

 resembling the piping of Argija acacia, set me on the track of 

 this graceful creature ; but it was only after days of exertion 

 that I succeeded in killing the specimen described, which was 

 flying at a short distance, with its tail depressed and expanded, 

 over a thicket of rushes. It fell into a thicket where the water 

 was scarcely a foot deep ; I had marked the place accurately, 

 and with my pocket-knife I cut down the sedges as carefully 

 as possible, over a space of several fathoms square, a work which 

 took me nearly two hours, and in which night just surprised 

 me, as I at last discovered my rare prize. In the stomach I 

 found small midges. 



Found also in South Africa. 



Genus Bradypterus, Swainson. 



2. Bradypterus cettii (Marm.), Cab., Mus. Hein. i. p. 43. 



Occurs in Egypt according to Keyserling and Blasius, but not 

 collected by me, though I remember having frequently in the 

 spring seen in the Delta and near Cairo a bird probably belong- 

 ing to this species, especially in cornfields and reed-thickets. A 

 note in my note-book runs as follows: — "11 March, 1852. 

 Two Sylvi(2 seen, one of them ferruginous brown with a graduated 

 tail {S. cettiit), the other more of the colour oi Aedongalactodes, 

 but much smaller, near Beresch (Lower Egypt)." 



Found also in Algeria (Loche, Tristram). 



