-NILAUS AFER 459 
minute, and often less, during the considerable time I watched 
them. ‘They invariably sat in the nest and turned rapidly 
round in it as they built in the stuff which they had brought. 
I saw one of the birds plastering cobwebs on the outside. 
The male, and possibly the female also, had a quiet piping 
note of one syllable.”” This note, Mr. Hawker observes, “can 
be heard at some distance.” Heuglin met with the species 
in Kordofan, and in Abyssinia to as far north as Keren and 
Lebka on the Anseba River, 16° N. lat. Blanford’s specimens 
came from Waliko, Rairo and Ailet, and at this last-named 
place others have been obtained by Esler, who also procured 
at Gimbar a fine adult male which was formerly in my own 
collection and is now in the British Museum. In Shoa, 
Antinori procured a single specimen at Dambi, and Ragazzi 
a pair at Cialalakan and a third at Soddé. In southern 
Abyssinia Lord Lovat met with it on two occasions only, at 
the Kassim River and at Wama. Mr. H. Degen obtained a 
specimen at Goubre near Lake 'l’sana, and LHrlanger’s last 
collection contained three specimens from Filoa and the Maki 
River near the southern boundary of Shoa. The eggs which 
have not yet been described are, we may presume, similar to 
those of N. minor. 
Examples of this species in the British Museum from the 
following localities have been examined :— 
N. a. afer: Gambia (Burton); Portuguese Guinea— 
Gunnal (Ansorge); Gold Coast Colony—Accra (Shelley), 
Volta River, Gambaga and Kintampo (Alexander); N. Nigeria 
—Serikim Kudu, Kiri, Bima, Bauchi, Gendie and Lake Chad 
(Alexander) ; French Congo—Fort Lamy and Ubangi River 
(Alexander) ; Egyptian Sudan—Nakheila (Rothschild), Gerazi 
(Witherby), Kaka and Fashoda (Hawker), Renk and Baro 
river (Zaphiro), Zeraf River (Dunn). 
N. a. erythree : Eritrea—Gimbar and Eylet (Esler), Waliko 
(Jesse), Ailet and Rairo (Blanford). 
