Ornithology of the Egyptian Soudan. 313 



The birds wove near, but, had not an Egyptian Nightjar 

 risen at my feet and directed my eyes to the ground, I should 

 never have noticed the nest, so exactly did it harmonize 

 with its surroundings. It was a little pad of bits of rag, 

 cotton-waste, string, and goat's hair, placed in the open in 

 a depression between a brick and a piece of dried cow-dung. 

 I revisited the place next day ; there was still only one egg, 

 which proved to be on the point of hatching. The ground- 

 colour was greyish white, thickly speckled throughout with 

 olive-brown and grey, forming more or less of a zone at 

 the large end." 



" Khartoum, March 18th, 1901. Killed with the same 

 shot two males and one female, which seemed to have set up 

 a menage a trois. The hen contained a single egg, almost 

 ready for exclusion. The other eggs in the ovary were in 

 no way enlarged." 



" Khartoum, Jan. 24th, 1903. Found a nest within a few 

 feet of the spot where I found one on Dec. 9th last year. 

 The cock bird was sitting when I detected the nest; he 

 fluttered off and settled about eight feet from me. I glanced 

 down, saw that there was one egg, and passed on. The bird 

 ran back and reseated himself on the egg close to me. I 

 returned in twenty minutes, and found the hen bird sitting, 

 but she was much wilder than the cock, twice slipping off 

 when I was twenty yards from her. I then took the egg. 

 Nest similar to the other." 



This species appears usually to lay only one egg. 



24-. Pyrrhulauda butleri Shelley. 

 (Bull. B. O. C. xiii. p. 73, 1903.) 

 a. <$ . 20 miles W. of Omdurman, Jan. 2, 1903. 



25. Pyrrhulauda lacteidorsalis Shelley. 

 (Bull. B. O. C. xiii. p. 73, 1903.) 



a. S • Khartoum, Nov. 25, 1902. 



I must say that I, personally, do not consider either of 

 these recently described species as valid. 



The so-called Pyrrhulauda butleri was very abundant in 

 January on red sandy ground near the wells of Fatassheh, 



