UROLONCHA CANTANS 153 
the species is Gambaga in the “hinterland” of the Gold 
Coast, where it has been procured by Mr. Boyd Alexander. 
The species is apparently more abundant eastward; it 
formed part of Petherick’s collection from Kordofan; Mr. 
Hawker considered it common at Kaka, on the White Nile, 
10° 30' N. lat., and found a nest there, with young birds, in 
March. Further down the Nile, within 140 miles from Khar- 
toum, Mr. Witherby met with the species moulting and by no 
means plentiful. After giving a comparison of the old and new 
plumage he adds: “They were found in parties of five or 
six, generally sitting close together on a twig of some bush 
or tree near the river. They seemed most inactive, their sole 
occupation consisting, apparently, of singing sotto voce.” Still 
further down the Nile, at Shendi, the most northern known 
range for the species, the Hon. N. C. Rothschild and Mr. A. 
F. R. Wollaston collected five cocks and four hens, and found 
them to be tolerably common and remarkably tame. ‘‘ They 
were very sluggish in their habits and might often be seen 
in small parties closely huddled together on a branch for 
hours at a time. Towards the end of February a pair of 
these birds built a nest in a low bush in the middle of our 
camp; it was composed almost entirely of scraps of paper 
and cotton-wool, and was shaped somewhat like a very untidy 
nest of a Greenfinch. Unfortunately, when two eggs had been 
laid, the nest was ruthlessly destroyed by a pair of Passer 
rufidorsalis.” 
Mr. A. L. Butler writes to me from the Soudan: “A 
common resident, found in flocks, and very sociable, generally 
perching in trees, two or three together, touching each other. 
I have met with the species from Galabat, on the Abyssinian 
frontier, to Kawa on the White Nile, and it occurs round the 
wells in the otherwise waterless country of Omdurman. At 
Gedaref, in May, 1901, several pairs were nesting in the thatch 
