BIEDS OF EGYPT. 69 



lantii iu the above-mentioned references as synonymous with 

 P. xanthopycjius, and therefore give a description of the last- 

 named bird from a specimen collected by Canon Tristram 

 in Palestine. 



Head and throat black, the latter shading into dark brown 

 on the lower part ; back and scapulars mouse-colour ; wings 

 browner ; tail brownish-black ; chest and flanks stone-grey, 

 shading almost into white on the lower part of the abdomen ; 

 vent and under tail-coverts bright yellow ; beak black ; legs 

 brownish-black ; irides brown. 



Entire length 8 inches ; culmen 07; wing, carpus to tip, 

 3-7 ; tarsus 0-85. 



8. Crateropus acacia (Licht.). Egyptian Bash-Babbler, 



(Plate I.) 



This species, though not uncommon in any part of Nubia, 

 rarely descends the Nile below Assouan. I met with it on 

 several occasions on a small bushy island immediately below 

 the First Cataract, where I obtained four specimens, and on 

 the same island in April found two nests of this species, in 

 construction and size closely resembling that of our Common 

 Blackbird. They were built entirely of a coarse grass which 

 grows abundantly in Egypt, and were on each occasion placed 

 in a thick sont bush, about five feet from the ground. This 

 bird is lively and cheerful in its habits, and appears to keep 

 exclusively to the sont bushes, where it creeps among the 

 thorny and tangled boughs, incessantly uttering its babbling 

 song, which is rather pleasing and, when once heard, cannot 

 be mistaken. On the approach of danger it immediately 

 ceases its note, and creeps off at the further side of the bush. 



