Ornithology of the Egyptian Soudan. $87 



bob-tailed, broad- winged Lark and nothing else ! In 

 flight the white shoulder-patches are very noticeable. 



I should say that the genus is rightly placed after Turnix, 

 and not, as in the ' Catalogue of Birds/ near the Courier- 

 Plovers, to which I can see only a faint resemblance in 

 the shape of the head, and none whatever in habits, though 

 Mr. Jackson has referred to it in his field-notes as the 

 " Little Courser." Throughout rny diaries it appears as the 

 " Lark-Quail." 



The crop of my specimen contained small grass-seeds only. 



Further north, in Western Kordofan, Capt. H. N. Dunn 

 obtained the bird at Jebel Haraza in the winter of 1902. 



Spirit-specimens of Ortyxelus would be most welcome at 

 the Natural History Museum, and Avould enable the 

 affinities of the genus to be settled definitely. Unfor- 

 tunately, seeing that the bird was plentiful, and not knowing 

 that it was in such request, I shot only one example. 



285. Coturnix communis (Bonn.). 



Compared with its numbers in Egypt, the Quail can 

 only be called a scarce winter- visitor to the Soudau. I 

 met with it here and there wherever I travelled, but have 

 never seen more than a few couple in a day, or a sufficient 

 number to afford any shooting. I have noticed it in every 

 month between September and May. 



286. Francolinus clappertoni Childr. 



a. S • Jebel Melbis, Kordofan, April 16, 1904. 



O. o • }} >j )) }> >> 



c. ?. „ „ „ April 11, 1904. 



This Francolin is the common " Partridge" of the Soudan. 

 It is abundant on the Upper Atbara, the Gash near Kassala, 

 the Setit, the Blue Nile and its tributaries, the White Nile, 

 and in Kordofan. On the White Nile its range appears 

 to overlap that of F. gedgii, a species that I have never 

 come across, as the Francolins which I have shot on the 

 Sobat and the Zeraf are identical with my more northern 

 specimens. 



