38 T-he Oologists' Record, June i, 1922. 



(which I had not), though it was only ten feet from the ground 

 and the pair of eggs showed clearly and provokingly through the 

 loosely woven cup of tendrils. The ' birds are common enough 

 throughout Nyasaland, but I have only taken here one clutch, 

 a pair found in a nest sheltered by a mass of creepers growing over 

 the top of a small tree, one of a cluster about a spring, on the lower 

 slopes of Ndirande. That was on November 6th, 1921. The 

 e^^ measures 22J mm. x 17 mm., and ovate in shape, bluish-green 

 in ground-colour, well covered, though more thickly at the larger 

 end (where they form a cap) , with small spots and freckles of light 

 brown. The surface is highly glossy. Another egg from a nest 

 in a lemon tree near Shupanga on the Zambesi is the same in 

 colour but smaller, 21 J mm. x i6| mm. I have cause to remember 

 that nest : I was going up the river on a dreadfully hot day (Sep- 

 tember 2ist, 1920), and the Captain of the s.w. " Centipede " 

 (now lying on the bottom at Chinde, since the hurricane of February 

 24th, 1922) had invited us to follow him round one of his cotton 

 estates at a rate of about 5 miles an hour. I collapsed quite early, 

 and made for the grateful shade of these lemon trees. Perceiving 

 a small nest just within reach of my stick, I poked at it idly, 

 thinking it old. To my surprise, out toppled two eggs, and to 

 my greater surprise, I almost involuntarily caught one in my hand. 

 Simultaneously, the whistle of the Shrike came from the next tree. 

 Two is the usual clutch, but I have been shown one of three. The 

 native name on the Lower Shire is Mulichire. 



Dryoscoptis ciibla (Shaw). — ^The genus Dryoscopiis (Lesser 

 Puff-back Shrikes) is another to which a good deal of species- 

 lumping might with advantage be applied. The local form is 

 hantatiis (Hartl.), which ranges down the East Coast from Witu to 

 Ouilimane and across into South-west Africa. It is common 

 enough in this Protectorate, and is always on the move in the 

 leafy tops of trees where it may easily be mistaken for Nilaus 

 nigriiemporalis, a rarer bird. Its note is loud and rasping. 

 I never had the good fortune to find the nest, though from October 

 to the end of the year they were clearly breeding in the scrub 

 country north of BlantjTC where I often saw the male extending 

 the white patch of dorsal feathers, a sexual adornment. It was 

 well described by a young friend who recently passed through 

 Chinde, and wrote to me of a bird new to him seen there, which 

 " seemed to have a lump of raw cotton on its back." I had no 



