202 Major H.J. Kelsall on 



Family LANiiDiE. 



Lanius humeralis smithi. 



A common and couspicuous bird in open bush country 

 and cultivated land and gardens. Fond of perching on 

 telegraph-wires or on a bare branch of a tree, whence it 

 makes short flights in pursuit of insects^ returning again to 

 its perch. The breeding-season is in May and June. 



Chlorophonens snlphureopectus. 



Not a common bird. I only saw or heard one occasionally. 

 It has an easily distinguishable call consisting of four notes. 

 It is shy and not easy of approach. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black ; legs and feet pale slate. 



Chlorophonens multicolor and C. preussi. 



There appears to have been some confusion with regard 

 to this species. Reichenow (Vog. Afr. ii. 1903, p. 565) 

 describes it as having " the forehead behind the black band, 

 eyebrows and temporal streak white," and distinguishes 

 C. preussi (Neum.) from it by the absence of any white 

 between the black band and the grey of the crown. Hartlaub 

 (Sjst. Ornith. Westafr. 1857, p. 108) states that the black 

 band is bordered above with white ('^ supra albo-limbata^'). 

 Neumann, in his description of this species (J. f. O. 1899, 

 p. 393), says that the grey of the crown is separated from 

 the black of the brow and sides of the head by a grey-white 

 line, and describes as a new species, C. preussi, from " two 

 unfortunately very defective specimens '' [" zwei leider recht 

 defecteExemplare"), which he differentiates from multicolor 

 by the absence of a white line between the grey crown and 

 the black of the brow and sides of the head. 



Shelley also (' Birds of Africa,^ vol. v. pt. ii. p. 419) 

 describes C. multicolor as having the black band "margined 

 above with white which extends more or less over the front 

 half of the crown," his description being based on two 

 specimens in his possession. 



Now the type specimen of Gray's Laniarius m,ulticolor is 

 in the British Museum, and an examination of it and of the 



