STUKNID.E LAMPROCOLIUS 37 



frequently at a considerable height above the ground. The nests 

 consist of a quantity of dry grass and straw lined with hair, wool 

 and finer grass. The eggs are usually four in number, bluish-green, 

 sparingly marked with spots of pale reddish brown. They measure 

 1-36 by 0-95. 



13. Lamprocolius acuticaudus. Sharp-tailed Glossy Starling. 



Lamprocolius acuticaudus, Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1870, p. 345 ; id. Orn. 



Angola, p. 309, pi. 6 (1881) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 427 



(1884) ; Shelley. B. Afr. i, p. 43 (1896). 



Heteropsar acuticaudus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 185 (1890). 

 " Eiabairo " of Caconda natives (Anchieta). 



LamprocoliiLS acuticaudus. 



Description. Adult female (Okavango Kiver). Above glossy 

 oil-green ; wing-coverts and outer webs of quills like the back, 

 the edge of wing glossed with violet and copper-colour, the 

 primary coverts with blue, some of the middle coverts with a black 

 terminal or subterminal spot ; central tail-feathers green like the 

 back, the outer with their inner edges dull black ; crown like the 

 back ; lores, eyelids and feathers below eye black ; ear-coverts 

 glossy blue ; under surface of body glossy oil-green, shot with 

 bluish on the lower breast, abdomen and flanks ; axillaries and 

 under wing-coverts black, glossed with violet and purple; under 

 surface of tail and wing-quills blackish. 



Iris orange-yellow ; bill and feet black. 



Length 9'00 ; wing 5'00 ; tail 4-45 ; tarsus 1'05 ; culmen 0-90. 



The tail graduated, the centre feathers 0-75 longer than the 

 outer. 



Adult male. Eesembles the female in colour, but is slightly 

 larger, and has a longer tail. 



