Species of Macronyx and Tmetothylacus. 103 



thought that the birds were on migration, as I had so many 

 times passed the same way without noticing any of them, but 

 I have since found that they are resident. In May 1901 I 

 met with a considerable number of them, for the most part 

 singly, near the railway-station of Londiani at the head of 

 the Nyando Valley (alt. 7500 feet). On the 22nd of the same 

 month I found a nest, from which the old bird rose, placed 

 under a tuft of grass on the side of a low ant-hill, and 

 containing two slightly incubated eggs. The foundation 

 of the nest was composed of grass stems and roots, while 

 it was neatly lined with small fine rootlets. 



The eggs are of a very pale greenish white, obscurely 

 mottled with pale yellowish-brown and grey under-markings, 

 most numerous at the larger end. They measure 0*85 by 

 0*65 inch. 



Macronyx wintoni, so far as I have been able to ascertain, 

 is found in three places only — the Rift Valley in the vicinity 

 of Lake Naivasha, the eastern side of the Guashangishu 

 plateau, and the Nyando Valley in the vicinity of Kitotos. 

 I first met with it in the Nyando Valley in Oct. 1889, and 

 obtained two specimens. It was thought to be a new species, 

 and was named by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe (' Ibis/ 1891, p. 444) 

 M. wintoni, after the late Sir Francis de Winton, who was at 

 that time Administrator of the Imperial British East Africa 

 Company's territories ; but Captain Shelley (B. of Afr. iii. 

 p. 13) considers it to be inseparable from the South-African 

 M. amelice. Even if this be correct, it was certainly an inter- 

 esting discovery, as the bird has not, I believe, been recorded 

 from either British Central Africa or German East Africa. 

 This remark applies equally to C/iera progne * and Pyrome- 

 lana taha, both of which are found in the Rift Valley. 

 M. wintoni is fairly plentiful in the Nyando Valley on the 

 open plains near Kitotos, but may be considered a rare 



* Captain Shelley lias separated the northern form of this bird as 

 Client ilelamerei on account of its slightly longer tail (Bull. B. O. C. xiii. 

 p. 73), but refuses specific rank to Macronyx wintoni, which has, in my 

 opinion, quite as good claims to that distinction as Chera delamerei. 



