352 Mr. A. L. Butler on the 



149. Merops nubicus Gm. 



a. <J. Gallabat, May 6, 1901. 



b. S ■ R i yer Rahad, June 11, 1901. 



c. <J. Setit River, May 11, 1903. 



These lovely Scarlet Bee-eaters are common on every river 

 in the Soudan south of about the 15th degree of N. lat. 

 They breed in large colonies in sandy or earthy river-banks 

 in the months of May and June. I have seen cliff-faces 

 riddled with their holes on the Setit, the Atbara, and the 

 Blue Nile ; but the flat banks of the White Nile do not 

 afford any suitable breeding-places. These birds are always 

 in attendance at bush-fires, snapping up the insects as they 

 are driven before the advancing flame and smoke. 



The delicate colouring of this species seems to lose much 

 of its brightness after death. Certainly skins give a very 

 poor idea of the beautiful rosy scarlet of its plumage. 



150. Upupa epops Linn. 



The Hoopoe may be met with at all times of the year, 

 but only a small minority of the birds are resident, their 

 numbers being suddenly swollen in February and March by 

 migrants from the north. These visitors gradually pass on 

 or scatter over the country, and the numbers decrease again 

 until the noticeable return migration in September. 



151. Irrisor erythrorhynchus (Lath.). 



I have seen the Red-billed Wood-Hoopoes on the Upper 

 Blue Nile, the Rahad, Dinder, and Setit Rivers ; also on the 

 Bahr-el-Ghazal and in Western Kordofan. They are almost 

 always in parties of from three or four to seven or eight, and 

 are decidedly shy birds, making off one after the other from 

 tree to tree when followed, and usually keeping out of shot. 

 Several times, when I have been following larger game, a 

 flock of these beautiful birds has flown into a tree close to 

 me, and I have been able to watch the squirrel-like ease 

 with which they run up and down the boughs, now and again 

 clinging, Creeper-like, to the rough bark, and with their 

 slender coral-red bills probing the crevices for insects. They 



