294 OTOMELA ISABELLINA 
southwards to Somaliland and the Sobat River. Possibly it 
may range farther south into British East Africa, but most 
of the Red-tailed Shrikes obtained there seem to belong 
to the following species (0. phenicuroides).  Sjdstedt has 
certainly recorded the present form from the desert country 
near Meru in January. 
The type was obtained by Hemprich and Ehrenberg at 
Kumfuda on the Arabian coast about opposite Suakim. On 
the Upper White Nile it has been obtained by Hawker at 
Kaka on March 2, and near Fashoda on April 4; Zaphiro 
collected a small series at Lake Tinero on the Baro River on 
April 2 to 4, and at Renk on January 29. In Abyssinia and 
Eritrea Blanford found it common on the coast in December 
and again in August, but not in July when it was away in 
the interior. Erlanger obtained several examples at Zeila 
and other localities in northern Somaliland in December, 
January and February, and Zedlitz met with it as late as 
April 20 at Taccaze, on the northern border of Abyssinia. 
Butler found it common between Suakim and Erkowit in 
March and April, 1906, and two years later met with it as 
late as May 4, at Khor Arbat near Port Sudan. He further 
states that he has seen it at Khartum in October and 
November. 
Owing to it having been so often confused with the allied 
O. phenicuroides it is difficult to disentangle their respective 
ranges with very great certainty, but the African examples 
+n the British Museum examined are as follows :— 
Sudan—Kaka and Fashoda (Hawker), Renk and Lake 
Tinero (Zaphiro), Shendi (Rothschild) ; Abyssinta—Zouilla 
(Blanford), Lake Tsanna (Bouvier), and Ailet in Bogosland 
(Schriider). 
