36 The Oologists' Record, June i, 1922. 



in Nyasaland have I found more than two eggs in a nest : a clutch 

 of three was quite usual in East Africa. For the rest, the song, 

 general habits, and nidification do not differ. The birds inhabit 

 well-grassed and wooded country, but not forest. A favourite 

 nesting locality is a clump of bushes by the dry bed of a stream. 

 The nest is seldom hidden, and may be placed at any height from 

 the ground between two feet and twenty, but more often than not 

 it is well within reach. It is a broad but deepish cup, and " trans- 

 parent," always with some insect-cocoon binding round the rim. 

 On more than one occasion, I noticed that if'a nest was looked at 

 and the eggs left, they were gone the next day. This is a common 

 African experience with many birds, my own view being that the 

 birds themselves do it, though' there are lizards and other marauders 

 enough which may be culpable. I find that my dates for- nests of 

 this species range from October 17th to December 23rd, but the 

 height of the season undoubtedly fell in 192 1 during the last week 

 in October and the first in November. The nests are not unlike 

 those of the Bulbul Pycnonotus layardi ; and, like those, one finds 

 them rather accidentally than by particular search, though in 

 the right country, at the right season, there is no difficulty in coming 

 across them. I consider this by far the commonest, though not the 

 most conspicuous, local Shrike. Selecting three eggs of different 

 appearance, I find they measure 25^ mm. x i8| mm., 24 mm. X 

 18 mm., 22\ mm. X 18 mm. respectively. They are very like those of 

 T. ausf rails, but the greater size distinguishes them at once, and 

 they are not like the eggs of an}^ other genus that I am acquainted 

 with. The\' are well splashed and streaked with light reddish- 

 brown on a pure white ground. There is sometimes a well-defined 

 cap (never a central zone) , and quite a frequent feature is a broad 

 smear as of dried blood. 



Clilorophoneus sulfureopectns (Less.). — ^The Nyasaland form of 

 the Yellow-breasted Bush Shrike, a small but beautiful bird with 

 green back, grey head, and bright yellow underparts, is chrysogaster 

 (Sw.), which extends on the Eastern side of Africa from Abyssinia 

 to the Shire Highlands. I have not yet taken the nest in Nyasaland 

 but have seen two clutches each of two eggs taken at Zomba and 

 Chiromo respectively. The eggs are small, ovate in shape, and 

 resemble those of an Australian Cuckoo-shrike, Lalage tricolor, 

 having the whitish ground colour nearly obscured by heavy olive- 

 brown streaks and blotches; 21 mm. X 16 mm. would appear 



