416 Messrs. Sclater and Mackworth-Praed on [Ibis, 



XXIII. — A List of the Birds of the Anglo- Egyptian 

 Sudan, based on the Collections of Mr. A. L. Butler, 

 Mr. A. Chapman and Capt. H. Lynes, R.N., and Major 

 Cuthbtrt Christy, R.A.M.C. (T.F.). Part I. Corvid^— 

 Fringillid^. By W. L. Sclater, M.B.O.IJ., and 

 C. Mackworth-Praed, M.B.O.U. 



(Plate IX.) 



Introduction. 



Up to quite recently the great collection of Birds in the 

 Natural History Museum has been singularly deficient in 

 material from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. This has recently 

 been remedied by the donation of Mr. Butler of the large 

 collection made by him during a long residence in that 

 country. 



Mr. Butler was appointed Superintendent of Game Pre- 

 servation to the Sudan Government in 1901, and retained 

 that post until he retired in 1915. Daring those years 

 he made good use of his opportunities of collecting birds 

 throughout the Sudan, and the collection presented to the 

 Museum consists of over 3100 beautifully prepared skins. 

 During his residence in the Sudan he published in ' The 

 Ibis ' a series of four " Contributions to the Ornithology of 

 the Sudan " between the years 1905 and 1909, in which he 

 described the habits and in many cases unravelled the 

 taxonomy of many of the species lie had met with, and 

 these papers are all referred to in the present list. 



We are much indebted to hiiu for help in drawing up this 

 paper and for notes of the occurrence of several species in 

 the Sudan not contained in the collection presented to the 

 Museum. 



In the winter of 1913-14 Mr. Abel Chapman and 

 Capt. Lynes, E.N., accompanied by Mr. W. P. Lowe, paid a 

 visit to the Sudan for shooting big game and collecting 

 birds. They landed at Port Sudan and proceeded thence 

 to Khartoum ; they spent a month or so on the Blue Nile 



