34 The Oologists' Record, June i, 1922. 



stroll, through a wood of small trees, I saw a bird fly out just over 

 my head, and I was able by pulling down the bough to reach the 

 nest from the ground. It rested on a double horizontal fork at about 

 ten feet, and was quite exposed. It proved to be a compact, 

 well-finished cup, whitish-grey in colour from the external binding 

 of insect webs. Composed of long fine shreds of smooth bark, the 

 fabric was lined with what were either finer bits of the same, or 

 perhaps split lengths of broad dead grass. The internal measure- 

 ments are 2| inches diameter and about | inch depth. I found many 

 nests afterwards, and there was never any variation worth men- 

 tioning. I wrote above of a likeness to the nest of Bias musicus, 

 but what struck me on further acquaintance was the resemblance 

 to the nest of the Australian Black-and- White Flycatcher [Saulo- 

 proda motacilloides) , except that there is never any hair or feathers 

 in the lining. Full clutches of eggs I took were 3, 4, and 5. Nests 

 with eggs were found on October 4th, gth, 14th, 19th, 23rd and 

 29th ; December loth and 15th. I was away during most of 

 November. The size, shape, colour and markings of the eggs vary 

 very little : they are of a fairly deep blue-green ground colour, with 

 a ring of reddish brown and lilac (subsurface) spots towards the 

 larger end. Sometimes the spots are larger and blotchy, and 

 sometimes they extend over the lower part of the egg, which, however, 

 is far more usually free of markings. I select an average-looking 

 egg for measurement and find it gives 22 mm. x i6| mm. One 

 which appears conspicuously smaller than the rest measures 21 mm. 

 X 16 mm. In .the case of one clutch of five, it seemed from the 

 types of egg that two females had laid in the nest, and one always 

 finds that half a dozen birds at least come round the nest to scold 

 a human intruder. 



Sigmodus retzii (Wahlb.). — In the form tricolor {G.R. Gr.) 

 which is that distributed over East Africa, the Black Helmet Shrike 

 is occasionally met with in the Highlands : I have seen small flocks 

 three or four times, on each occasion on the lower slopes of Zomba 

 Mountain. Their habits seem to be the same as those of Prionops, 

 both species haunting well-wooded areas away from dense waterside 

 vegetation, but the present bird affects higher timber than its grey 

 relative. Against the light, it is hard to tell one from the other ; 

 but otherAvise the black-and-white of this species is readily enough 

 distinguishable from the grey-and-white of Prionops. I never 

 found a nest myself, but I recently saw a set of three egg?, which were 



