268 Mr. H. F. V^'iiheYhy— Ornithological 



They have a straight quick flight. On April 22nd I found a 

 nest of this species at the edge of a tliick bush about 5 feet 

 from the ground. The fabric, slenderly made of a few sticks, 

 was round in shape and about 3^ inches in diameter. It con- 

 tained two eggs of a light-brown colour. 



Another nest, placed on the stump of a small tree about 

 3 feet from the ground, contained eggs on May 2nd. These 

 hatched the next day, and on May 5th the young were 

 lightly covered with whitish down. I spent a long time 

 trying to photograph the old bird on this nest. Although 

 my camera was only some four yards away from it, the hen^ 

 bird visited her young twice in about an hour. She was very 

 tame, and looked very pretty while settling on her progeny, 

 and I hoped that I had obtained good portraits of her; 

 but unfortunately these, and, indeed, all my negatives, are 

 failures, owing to an irremediable " fogging " caused by the 

 heat. 



Adult. Iris dark brown ; bill — of S purple at base, bright 

 yellow at tip, of ? dark brown ; legs and feet purplish red. 



83. Strix flammea Linn. 



Strix flammea maculata Brelim, Naum. 1855, p. 270. 



My specimen agrees with those at Tring collected by 

 Brehm and labelled " Khartum." They are rather dark on 

 the back and a good deal spotted on the breast. 



The only specimen we observed lived in a small tunnel in 

 the face of a cliff on Jebel Auli. This had the appearance 

 of a nesting-place, but the hole contained only a large 

 number of pellets, and the bird we shot proved to be 

 solitary. 



Adult. Iris dark hazel ; bill white ; claws blue-black. 



84'. Scops LEUCOTis (Teram.). 



This beautiful little Owl was first observed some ten miles 

 north of Jebel Auli. 



We were camped at mid-day when on the march, and while 

 searching through a small patch of dense wood, an apparent 

 swelling on the trunk of a thick tree attracted my attention. 

 I looked carefully at it, and had just come to the conclusion 



