ONYCHOGNATHUS BLYTHI 109 



frequenting the rocky highlands, and tlie high trees and 

 pasture laud of the valley, were noisy and cautious, perching 

 on the ground like Magpies. Blanford writes : {Amijdrus 

 rUpelli, Geol. and Zool. Abyss, p. 398). " This race abounds 

 around Senafe, and elsewhere in Tigre. I did not notice any 

 Amijdri in Lasta. As a rule, these birds keep to the high- 

 lands, at about from 7,000 to 8,000 feet, but I shot one 

 specimen in May as low as Suru, barely 2,000 feet above 

 the sea. The following measui'ements are taken from four 

 specimens of each sex : Male, wing 6"5 ; tail G'25 to 0"5 ; bill 

 11 to 1-15 ; female, wing 612 to 0-25 ; tail 6-25 ; bill I'O 

 to 1-05. 



" All the three species of Amydrus collected by me appeared 

 to be mainly, if not entirely, frugivorous, living chiefly on the 

 fruits of various kinds of Ficus, of Juniperus procerce, &c. 

 They also occasionally feed on the ground on seeds. They 

 roost at night amongst rocks in large communities." 



The subspecies, 0. I'neppelli, is no more than a rather large 

 form of 0. niorio, known only from the Abyssinian district of 

 North-east Africa, for there is absolutely no character in the 

 measurements for separating any other race of this species. 

 A fine specimen from Somaliland has both wing and tail Gl 

 inches, and among the Transvaal specimens I have found a 

 wing-measurement of 6'2, and the longest wing-measurement 

 I have come across from south of Abyssinia is 0'3 in one of 

 the Ugogo specimens in the British Museum. 



Onychognathus blythi (Plate 48). 



Amydrus blythi, Hartl. J. f. 0. 1859, p. 32 Somali; Sharps, Cat. B. M. 

 xiii. p. 164 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 617 (1896) ; Grant and 

 Forbes, N. Hist. Sokotra, p. 22 (1933) ; Neum. J. f. O. 1904, p. 569 ; 

 Wiiherby, Ibis, 1905, p. 519 Somali. 



Onychognathus blythi, Reichen. Yog. Afr. ii. p. 701 (1903). 



