Eggs from Mount CJiinnda, Southern Rhodesia. 19 



105 by 12, and 1{V2 Ij}' 12*5 mm. The ground-colour is 

 tliat of No. 85, but the specks are slightly hiroer and slightly 

 less dense. 



S62. Crateroptjs KIRKI, Sharpe. Kirk's Babbler. 



26. 3200 ft. 23. 11. 07.— A nest U, feet from the ground 

 in the triple fork of a bushy shrub. Two very hard-set 

 eggs. 



66. 3200 ft. 27. 12.07.— A very deep nest, 9 feet from 

 the ground, in a bunch of suckers springing from the 

 horizontal branch of a small tree standing in open grass- 

 veld. Three fresh eggs, 2(5 by 19*5, 27 by 19, and 27 by 

 19'5 mm. 



94. 3700 ft. 22. 1. 08.— A loose, unfinished-looking nest 

 placed in the thick triple fork of a " Water-boom " {Syztjghun 

 cordatum) 13 feet from the ground. It contained one egg, 

 quite fresh, 27'5 by 21'5 mm. 



The eggs in each of the above three clutches are of a 

 bright glossy blue, quite unspotted, and, in all probability, 

 belong to the above species. But in every case it was a 

 Cuckoo that was shot leaving the nest — ■Chrysococcyx cujjreus 

 at Nos. 2G and 60, and C. klaasi at the third. 



897. Pratincola torquatus (L.). tSouth African Stone 

 C^hat. 



2. 3800 ft. 15. 9. 07.— A nest 4^ feet from the ground 

 in the triple fork of a good-sized orange-tree, built externally 

 of grass and lined with bush-buck hair and wool. Four 

 eggs, hard-set, 21 by 14*5, 20 by 15, and 20 by 14*5 mm., 

 with the red-brown markings very pale in each and evenly 

 distributed over the entire pale blue surface ; a very slightly 

 denser zone round the thick end. In one egg the markings 

 are so pale as almost to be indistinguishable. The bird 

 feigned a broken wing for some distance on leaving the 

 nest. 



3. 3200 ft. 16. 9. 07. — A second nest was taken from a 

 hole under a stump of Combretutn splendens standing in a 



grassy glen. The hole was 5 inches deep by 3 broad. 



9* 



