260 Mr. II. F. Witherby— Om«7/io%?Vf// 



collector during liis first voyage, probably near the Bahr el 

 Abiad. Two of these specimens are in the Frankfort Museum 

 and one is at Leyden. A fourth, which is in Mr. Rothschild's 

 Museum at Triug, was obtained by Schimper or Baron Von 

 Miiller, and is labelled " Nubia " (see Hartert, ' Novitates 

 Zoologicfe/ vol. i. p. 3). I have compared my example 

 with that at Tring. It is considerably darker and richer 

 in -colour, but this is without doubt owing to its being a 

 fresher specimen. There are other small differences, how- 

 ever, which are perhaps worth noting. My bird has on the 

 upper back a conspicuous " saddle " of golden feathers almost 

 devoid of the grey and black bars and spots which are 

 characteristic of the other feathers of the upper parts. This 

 is no doubt due, in some measure, to abrasion. The white 

 tips to the two outer pairs of rectrices are larger, measuring 

 on the outermost pair 38 mm. and on the inner 33 mm. The 

 first four primaries of each wing have white patches extending 

 right across the feathers. In the specimen at Tring these 

 patches do not extend to the outer webs, while in the de- 

 scription of the typical specimen at Frankfort (Hartert, Cat. 

 B. Brit. Mus. xvi. p. 563, 1892) only the first three primaries 

 are mentioned as having the white patch. 



Adult. Iris blackish ; bill horn-colour, black at tip ; legs 

 and feet brownish flesh-colour. Wing 7'25 inches, tail 4" 75, 

 tarsus 0"9, culmeu 0'5. 



The testes were considerably enlarged, and the stomach 

 contained a small grasshopper. Although we were always 

 on the look-out for this species, it was not until nearly our 

 last day that we saw and obtained, by a mere chance, this 

 solitary specimen. My journal thus describes the capture, 

 which in its way was somewhat romantic : — I was shooting 

 bats just after sunset. The first that dropped I could not 

 find, so I marked the place where it seemed to fall with a 

 pyramid of mud. Then I went down nearly to the river's 

 edge. The sun's glow had quickly faded, but there was a 

 brilliant moon. I shot another bat, and was looking for it, 

 when a bird like a hawk with a straight flight appeared like 

 a ghost from over the river. There was only dust-shot in 



