Ornithology of the Egyptian Soudan. 305 



the birds were in hundreds everywhere. The full breeding- 

 plumage is assumed very early; I have seen examples with 

 the throat completely black as early as February 4th. The 

 change is very rapid, and appears to be a moult of the head 

 and neck only. They spread all over the Soudan from east 

 to west and from north to south. 



I noticed in Kordofan that every desert -well had one or 

 two of these Wagtails at it. These wells are in some cases 

 as much as fifty miles apart ; they are timbered over, with 

 an opening perhaps 18 inches in diameter, while the water 

 may be 200 feet down. The birds can find them only by 

 following the sheep and goats, which are watered daily in 

 wooden troughs at the well's mouth, and all the chance of a 

 drink they get is by dodging in between the scuffling cattle ! 

 Their presence at these remote wells struck me as interesting 

 in the extreme, and shews the wonderful manner in which 

 birds find their way to water. It must not he supposed that 

 a desert-well in Kordofan represents anything in the nature 

 of an oasis. The Arabs there undertake no cultivation what- 

 ever, except in the rains, but subsist on their stored grain 

 and on their flocks, which manage to eke out a living by 

 nibbling thorn-bushes and scanty tufts of dry grass, and can 

 go without water for three days. Beyond the presence of 

 these animals there is no surface-indication of water at all. 



The latest date on which I have noticed this Wagtail is 

 May 6th. 



6. MoTACILLA MBLANOPE Pall. 



The Grey Wagtail is a very scarce visitor. I think that I 

 have seen it here only twice. From March 15th to March 

 22nd, 1902, one frequented our steamer, which during that 

 time was lying at a wooding station on the Bahr-el-Ghazal,and 

 came on board very fearlessly ; at the end of September 19J4 

 one appeared for a few days in my garden at Khartoum. 



7. MoTACILLA FLAVA Lillll. 



a. £ . Khartoum, March 15, 1901. 



8. MoTACILLA MELANOCEPHALA Licht. 



a. J . Khartoum, Dec. 2, 1902. 



