280 Mr. B. Alexander on the 



ever, augmented towards the end of February by the migra- 

 tory species on passage. Coming, as we did, to Santiago 

 on Dec. 2nd, direct from Sao Nicolau, where S. atricapilla 

 was in full song, the valleys on the former island struck us 

 as being very silent, for the subspecies had finished breeding, 

 the young were abroad, and the adults moulting. The 

 immature bird does not possess the brown throat. 



Calamocichla brevipennis. 



We arrived on Sao Nicolau on November 4th, just at the 

 right time to secure a couple of nests with eggs of this rare 

 Warbler. The nest, of a deep cup-shaped form, is bound to 

 two or more of the upper stems of a coffee-bush or of a 

 young orange-tree, and about 8 or 9 feet from the ground. 

 Fine strips from the dried-up blades of maize, dead grass, 

 and fibrous rind from the trunk of the banana-tree com- 

 pose the body of the nest, while fine grass and bents 

 form the lining. The eggs, generally three in number, are 

 bluish white, spotted and blotched, especially at the larger 

 ends, with pale greenish brown and purple-brown, and with 

 underlying blotches of violet-grey. Their dimensions cor- 

 respond with those of the round form of the eggs of Acro- 

 cephalus streperus. Although the affinity of this species to 

 typical examples of the genus Lusciniola is indicated by the 

 possession of a long first primary, yet its flight, song, nest, 

 and eggs show it to be a true Reed-Warbler. 



Passer salicicola. 



The Spanish Sparrow is almost as ubiquitous as Passer 

 jayoensis. Nowhere else did we find this Sparrow in such 

 numbers as on Maio. Small clumps of acacia-bushes in a 

 valley close to the sea had their upper branches crammed 

 with bulky domed nests, hardly a foot of space intervening 

 between them. 



Passer jagoensis. 



This Sparrow is not at all particular as to where it builds 

 its nest. Where trees are absent, hollows in the ground 

 underneath boulders, or crevices in cliff's, are chosen. The 

 proper breeding-season commences at the end of September. 



