162 CRYPTORHINA AFRA 



Tlie Piapiac or Senegal Magpie, ranges over Northern 

 Tropical Africa between 2° and 16" N. lat. 



The Type came from Senegal, and the species is generally 

 distributed over Senegambia. Dr. P. Rendall writes from 

 the Gambia : " Common. Following the cattle." Barahona 

 procured the species on Bulama, the only island from which 

 it has been recorded, in fact, it appears to avoid the sea, or 

 it may be on account of the absence of cattle that it has not 

 otherwise been recorded from within 200 miles of the Guinea 

 Coast ; but regarding its occurrence at Gambaga, Mr. Boyd 

 Alexander writes : " This is a common species in the open 

 coimtry, consorting together in small flocks, and always to be 

 found where cattle are grazing. It nests in the tops of tall 

 cocoanut trees. Its flight is straight and steady, and when 

 travelling together, these birds give vent to a series of short 

 sharp cries, almost in unison. The males have the iris claret- 

 colour, the females hazel." A little further eastward it has 

 been procured at Bassari by Kersting, and these are the only 

 two places of the Gold Coast and Togoland, from whence the 

 species has yet been recorded. In Nigeria, Dr. Hartert found 

 these birds very common, but only in the valley between 

 Panda and the mountains, assembling in noisy flocks in the 

 corn-fields to feed on the grain, insects and worms, and 

 observes that he never saw them at the Benue nor anywhere 

 to the south of that river. 



Bohndorff procured a large series at Katschugali and 

 Semmio in the Niam-Niam country. Emin obtained it at 

 Kiri, and found the species frequenting in numbers, the 

 Borassus-palms in the Lado district, southward to about 2° N. 

 lat. ; Dr. Donaldson Smith obtained specimens in the Akara 

 country. They range down the Nile into Kordofan and 

 Abyssinia, but I find no record of their occurrence near 

 the shores of the Red Sea, nor further north than 16° N. lat. 

 Its Arabic name is " Scharal." 



