312 Mr. A. L. Butler on the 



says, owing to want of material, had been united in the 

 'Catalogue of Birds ' (cf. vol. xiii. p 637). 



Owing to my inability to distinguish them with cer- 

 tainty, even with the aid of Mr. Grant's key, I think that I 

 had better reunite them for the purpose of this paper ! 



Now, as to identification. Certainly only one species 

 occurs at Khartoum. In this the bill is always white ; 

 the white nape-band (measured with the bill at a right 

 angle to the breast) is 25 of an inch in width; and the 

 predominating colour of the lesser wing-coverts is white, 

 though black feathers are always present, sometimes only 

 four or five very small ones, but very often almost as many 

 as the white, forming a jet-black shoulder-patch nearly an 

 inch in length. In spite of this, the bird seems to me very 

 close to typical P. melanocephala, and as such I have named 

 my skins. It is, moreover, the same species, shot in exactly 

 the same spot, as the birds collected by Mr. Hawker and 

 identified by Mr. Grant as P. melanocephala. Captain 

 Shelley has, however, in a list which I sent him with the 

 skins, altered the specific name to leucotis in every case 

 except in that of the White Nile bird (a), which he has left 

 as P. melanocephala. And it was Mr. Hawker's White Nile 

 birds which Mr. Grant identified as P. leucotis ! 



I cannot help thinking that all these Khartoum birds 

 should stand as P. melanocephala , in spite of their having 

 more or less black on the shoulders. 



My three Gedaref birds I should undoubtedly call 

 P. leucotis. These Captain Shelley did not see. 



One form or another occurs almost all over the country 

 from the Setit on the east to Western Kordofan, and as 

 far south as Fashoda, but the exact distribution of each, or 

 of the intermediate birds, still remains to be studied. 



This is an extremely tame little bird, frequenting paths to 

 pick up the grain dropped from donkey-loads, and barely 

 moving out of the way of passers-by. It may be met with 

 cither in pairs or in small nocks throughout the year. 



I have the following notes on its nidification : — " Khar- 

 toum, Dec. 9th, 190... Found a nest containing one egg. 



