COTILE MINOR, Cah. 



SOUDAN SAND-MAETIN. 



Cotyle minor, Cab. Miis. Hein. Th. i. p. 49 (1850) ; Heugl. Orn. N.O.-Afr. i. p. IGG 

 (1869) ; Blauf. Geol. & Zool. Abyss, p. 350 (1870) ; SUavpe, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 303 ; 

 Shelley, B. Egypt, p. 124 (1872). 



Cotyle Uttoralis, Hempr. & Elir. MSS. ; Liclit. Nomencl. p. 61 (1854). 



Cotile minor, Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 74, no. 878 (1869) ; Sliarpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. 

 Mus. X. p. 108 (1885). 



? Cotyle palustris (pt.), Heugl. Orn. N.O.-Afr. i. p. 167 (1869). 



C. similis C. paludicola, sed minor. 



Hab. in Africa septentrionali-orientali. 



Adult. Similar to C. paludicola, but smaller, and having a shade of silvery grey down the centre ; 

 remainder of abdomen and under tail-coverts white. Total length 4'5 inches, culmen 0\25, wing 

 3"9, tail V7, tarsus 0'3. 



Young (one of the types of C. Uttoralis, H. & E.). Very pale brown, washed with sandy rufous, the 

 feathers broadly edged with this colour, the rump and upper tail-covcrts nearly uniform rufous; 

 wing-coverts and quills darker brown, edged with sandy rufous ; car-coverts and sides of face pale 

 brown, the lores and feathers of the head washed with rufous ; throat and chest white, washed 

 with pale rufous ; sides of breast brown ; centre of breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white : 

 flanks brown washed with sandy rufous. [Mus. G. E. Shelley.) 



A specimen collected by Sir W. C. Harris at AngoUala in Shoa has the wing 3-85 inches. 



Hab. North-eastern Africa from Central Egypt to Abyssinia, Somali-land and Equatorial Africa, iiro- 

 bably migrating southwards, but the northern and southern limits of the species have yet to be 

 defined. 



This small Sand-Martin is so closely allied to the South- African C. paluirtcola that it is 

 scarcely deserving of separation, and it is not surprising that it has been considered to 

 be identical with that species ])y many naturalists. In fact little is known about it ; 

 and notwithstanding tlie universal testimony of naturalists to tlic wonderful profusion of 

 the species in North-eastern Africa, in collections it is one of the rarest of tlic Swallows. 

 Thus it is quite possible that an absolute connection with C. i>aliiiHcol<( will one day l).- 

 established. 



At present wc have only seen two specimens of C. minor, and the only diirerence 

 between them and C. palifdicola amsi^ts in tlie silvery grey sliade mi the tlmtat and 

 fore neck whieli is perceptilde in the first-named l)ird. The extent of the brown colour 



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