Ornithology of the Egyptian Soudan. 327 



G2. Prionops poliocephalus (Stanl.). 



a. $. Gallabat, April 15, 1903. 



This Helmeted Shrike is usually met with in parties of 

 five or six, which follow each other closely through the bush. 

 It does not seem common. I have met with it on the White 

 Nile near Jebel Ahmed Aga, and near Gallabat in the 

 Kassala Province. 



63. Fiscus excubitokius (Des Murs). 



a. ? . Bahr-el-Ghazal, March 6, 1902. 



I first met with the Long-tailed Grey Shrike at Kaka in 

 February 1902. There it was comparatively scarce, but in 

 March I found it very abundant in the cc ambatch " cover 

 along the Bahr-el-Ghazal and Jur Rivers. I have seen it no- 

 where else. 



I do not think that this Shrike can be correctly retained 

 in the genus Lanius. Its habits are so very different. It is 

 highly gregarious, being almost always found in parties ; 

 and these are not pairs of old birds accompanied by their 

 last brood, but companies of as many as twelve or fifteen 

 individuals. I have seen them dancing about all over a tree, 

 jerking their tails and flirting their wings, more like Babblers 

 than true Shrikes of the typical genus. 



64>. Lanius leuconotus Brelim. 



a. £ . Khartoum, Feb. 6, 1901. 



This conspicuous Shrike is fairly common and of wide 

 distribution. I find from mv notes that I met with it almost 

 daily between Sept. 7th and May 11th, from the Setit across 

 to Western Kordofan, and up the White Nile as far as the 

 Sobat Junction. During the remaining months of the year 

 I have generally been away, but, as it was not to be seen 

 at Khartoum just before the first week in September, and 

 then became suddenly abundant, I had formed the idea 

 that it was a migrant, and did not breed in the country. 

 However, on March 31st, 1904, at the Mazrub Wells in 

 Western Kordofan, I came on two bob-tailed young birds 

 sitting on a thorn " zariba," and watched the parents 

 feeding them for some time. 



This Shrike is quite at home in any desert where there 



