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On Birds and Nests in Uganda.



Warbler (. Eminia lepida ), though I did not discover this until I

had waited for some three hours to catch sight of the parent

birds, which remained in a dense bush only a few yards away

calling repeatedly to each other. The nest was a very untidy

structure, composed of grass and lined with thistle-down and

was only partially domed. There was only one young bird in

the nest and it was of similar plumage to the adults.


One of the finest songsters I have come across in the

Uganda protectorate is (Cichladusa guttata), a bird very similar

to, only smaller than, a Thrush to the casual observer, but only

a distant relation according to the systematist. A nest of this

species was found at Gondokoro on April 21st, 1906, in a thick

clump of bush about four feet from the ground. It was com¬

posed of mud outside and lined with grass, and contained two

nearly-fledged young similar in plumage to the adults.


The Yellow-billed Kite (Milvus aegyptius) is a very common

bird and a useful scavenger throughout Uganda, albeit a terror

for young chickens. A nest of this species was observed on the

13th of February, 1906, at Nimule, in the fork of a tree some 25

feet from the ground. It contained two eggs of a yellowish-white

colour, thickly blotched with red-brown.


Now I ask, are dates of the nesting of birds in the tropics

of any value ? I happen to have looked up one of the birds

mentioned above, viz., Eminia lepida , and see that Mr. Woosman,

during his expedition to Ruwenzori, found this bird nesting at

the beginning of May, and again at the end of July, both nests

containing young birds, while I find it on Dec. 27th, also with

young in the nest. I am inclined to think they nest whenever

they are ready. The same difficulty is seen in trees, some species

at least of which have no proper seasons, for you may see two

trees of the same species, side by side, one just budding and the

other just shedding its leaves.



