330 Mr. A. L. Butler on the 



western sand- regions. Its note is a long-drawn piping 

 whistle ; the birds are nearly always in pairs, and they have 

 a pretty trick of fluttering straight up into the air from a 

 bush and then parachuting down into it again. 



73. Argya acacle (Licht.). 



Lichtenstein's Desert-Babbler is common wherever there 

 are scrubby thorn-bushes on sandy desert from Haifa south- 

 wards to the White Nile, and from Wad Medani on the Blue 

 Nile across to Western Kordofan. Except when nesting, it 

 is always in small parties of six to eight, with the regular 

 habits of the Babblers of the " Seven Sisters" group. 



74. Crateropus leucocephalus (Riipp.). 

 a. $ . Gallabat, May 7, 1901. 



I have met with the White-headed Babbliug-Thrush on 

 the Setit and Upper Atbara, on the Upper Blue Nile and its 

 tributaries, and on the White Nile to a little further up than 

 Duem. It is generally in parties of a dozen or so, and is a 

 common species. I have often wished that it was less 

 abundant, for no sooner do a party detect an intruder than 

 they take upon themselves to warn every living thing in the 

 neighbourhood of his presence, following him about per- 

 sistently with a noise like a policeman's rattle ! 



75. Crateropus cordofanicus, sp. n. (Plate VII.) 

 a. <$. Jebel Melbis, Kordofan, April 16, 1904. 



After carefully comparing this specimen with all the skins 

 of the genus Crateropus in the British Museum, I venture 

 to describe it as a new species — a view in which Dr. Sharpe 

 concurs. Its nearest ally is C. plebeius (Riipp.), from which 

 it may readily be distinguished by its smaller size and paler 

 coloration, by having the feathers of the throat and breast 

 tipped with white, and by the flanks and under tail-coverts 

 being buff-coloured. Measurements of the type specimen 

 ( ? ) -.—Length 222 mm. ; wing 108; tail 106; tarsus 28; 

 culmen 17. Bill black; legs and feet dusky brown. 



I found this bird quite common along the "khor" which 

 runs from Jebel Melbis towards El Obeid. Its habits are 

 the same as those of Crateropus leucocephalus, the place of 



