TICHODROMA MURARIA. 259 



Tichodroma muraria. 



Tichodroma muraria (Linn.), Eiipp. Sysfc. Uebers, p. 23 (1845) Egypt, 

 Abyssinia; Heugl. Orn. N. O. Afr. p. 236 (1869) Abyssinia; Gadow, 

 Cat. B. M. viii. p. 331 (1883) ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 140 (1896). 



Adult. Above pale bluish grey slightly washed with brown on the crown 

 and passing into dusky black on the tail-coverts ; lesser and median wing- 

 coverts and the basal portion of the outer webs of the primary coverts and 

 of many of the quills bright carmine red ; remainder of the wings brownish 

 black slightly washed with grey on the innermost quills, and mostly with 

 whitish ends ; the four outer long primaries have large white spots on their 

 inner webs, and some of the secondaries have fawn colour spots similarly 

 placed ; tail brownish black with broad pale ends ; chin and throat white ; 

 breast and under tail-coverts dusky grey ; under wing-coverts dusky black 

 partially washed with bright carmine. Bill black ; iris dark brown ; legs 

 greyish black. Total length 6-4 inches, culmen 1*05, wing 3-9, tail 2-3, 

 tarsus 0-9. 



The throat changes into grey or jet black at certain seasons. 



The Wall-creeper ranges from the Alps to the Himalayas 

 and China, and is included in Ruppell's list of birds from 

 north-east Africa, as a native of Egypt and Abyssinia. 



The only mention, I know of, of this bird occurring in 

 north-east Africa is Ruppell's including it in his list in 1845, 

 and as no one appears since then to have met with it, either in 

 Egypt or Abyssinia, its right to be included in the birds of the 

 Ethiopian region is very doubtful. 



Genus II. SALPOENIS. 



Bill longer than the head, slender and curved ; nostrils elongated, 

 opening in a groove and overhung by a bare membrane ; tongue slender and 

 smooth to the tip, which is divided into about five bristles (Ibis, 1895, 

 p. 257, fig. 5) ; wing fairly long and pointed : 3, 4, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1 ; 

 1 not one quarter the length of 2, and not reaching to the end of the primary 

 coverts. Nest, a neat cup-shaped structure, exposed on a bough. 



