SPREO PULCHER 95 



1902, p. 1-2), while at Shendi, saw these Starlings occasionally 

 " in small parties of four or live, always several miles out in 

 the desert. They were very wary and difficult to approach. 

 According to Heuglin, this species hreeds in September and 

 October ; but our young bird, caught on March 23, cannot 

 have been out of the nest for more than a few^ days." Mr. 

 Witherby (Ibis, 1901, p. 249) met with the species some 

 fifty miles south of Khartoum and remarks that it is shy 

 and artful, keeping one of the party on watch from a top- 

 most bough. " Just as you arrive within gunshot the 

 sentmel gives a warning whistle, so shrill that it somids 

 almost like a squeak, at which all the flock take a short 

 straight flight to another tree. When feeding on the 

 ground this species is more easily approached, and its gait 

 and action are similar to those of our Starlings." 



According to Mr. A. L. Butler's notes from the Egyptian 

 Soudan, the species is common between 12° and 18° N. lat., 

 but he did not observe it further south than Fashoda, and 

 writes : " I have not found eggs or \oung, Init the old 

 nests, built of sticks and placed in low thorn-trees, are 

 very conspicuous objects in the desert-scrub. Being well 

 protected by the thorns among which they are built, they 

 last in the dry climate for many years, and the abundance of 

 these old nests gives one at first a very exaggerated idea of 

 the quantity of Starlings necessary to build them. These 

 birds are generally met with in rather small flocks ; I never 

 saw them in such large assemblies as LamprocnJius chalybceus. 

 They feed principally on the ground ; their note is a harsh 

 ' kree ' ; the wdiitish colour on the primaries is conspicuous in 

 flight." 



