38 Mr. F. J. Jackson on Birds 



No. 1215. S ad. Naudi, 6500 feet, June \7 , 1898. 



No. 126-1. S ad. „ „ July 3, 1898. Iris 



brown; bill dull slaty black; feet briolit liorn-blue. Evidently 

 a bird of the year, batched probably in March or April. 



137. Dhyoscopus pringlii. 



Dryoscopus pringlei Jackson, Bull. B. O. C. iii. p. iii (1893) ; 

 Shelley, B. Africa, i. p. 55 (1896) ; O. Neum. J. f. O. 1899, 

 p. 416. 



No. 5. c^ juv. Mauungu Wilderness, Dec. 29, 1891. 



No. 91. (J ad. Between River Tsavo and Kufuraika, 

 April 5, 1892. Iris crimson ; bill black, base of lower 

 mandible horn-blue; feet horn-blue. 



Both these birds were shot in the thick thorny wilderness 

 so common in East Africa. D. salinns and D. cubla are 

 more confined to the thick evergreen forests and are very 

 partial to mango and other big trees. D. pringlii is such 

 a small species that it cannot w^ell be confounded with either 

 D. gamhensis or D. cubla. 



[Although the character given by Mr. Jackson as to this 

 species being very like 1). gambensis but much smaller 

 does not suggest that the two birds are very distinct, yet, on 

 comparison, they will be found to be so, and the female bird 

 is quite different from the hen of D. gambensis. It is 

 uniform light ashy brown above, with whitish edgings to the 

 "wing-coverts and quills ; the lores are whitish, the ear- 

 coverts ashy brown ; cheeks and throat white, as also the 

 abdomen ; the fore-neck, breast, and sides of the body 

 washed with light ochreous ; thighs ashy brown; under 

 tail-coverts and under wing-coverts white. Total length 

 5'6 inches, culmen 0'65, wing 2*6, tail 23, tarsus 0-8. 



The specimen here described was obtained by Mr. F. Gillett 

 on the Webi Shebeli Biver on the 5th of September, 1894', 

 and is, I believe, the only female known. I should not be 

 surprised to find that 1). pringlii is the same as Hartlaub^s 

 J), hamatus from Somali-laud (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 106), 

 which has never been rediscovered since Speke procured the 

 first specimen at Kazeh. — R. B. S.] 



