Vol. xxv.] 74 



Dr. E. Hartert agreed with Mr. Rothschild in considering 

 that there were two distinct geographical races of C. aegyptius. 

 He said that when he had written his account of the Capri- 

 mulgidce (Cat. Birds B. M. xvi.) he thought that the 

 differences in coloration were due to individual variation, 

 hut after comparing a series of specimens from Algeria, 

 Tunisia, and Persia, he was convinced that in C. agyptius 

 this was not the case, though it was true of so many other 

 Nightjars. 



Mr. OgilVie-Grant said that he quite agreed with 

 Mr. Jourdain that a mistake had been made in the ' Cata- 

 logue of the Birds in the British Museum'' (vol. xxvi. p. 416), 

 and that the female Darter, procured by Commander Jones 

 at Babylon should have been referred to the African form ■ 

 Plotus rufus, and not to the Indian P. melanog aster. The 

 best character for distinguishing the females of the two 

 species was the colour of the band across the wing formed 

 by the outer webs of the secondary wing-coverts. In the 

 Indian bird these were silvery white in the adult, while in 

 the African species P. rufus they were reddish-brown. It 

 should be noted, however, that although these feathers when 

 freshly moulted were silvery white in Indian examples, 

 they became rufous or olive-brown when worn. 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild exhibited clutches of eggs 

 collected by himself and Dr. Hartert in the Sahara and Atlas 

 Mountains of Algeria, in 1909. The eggs belonged to the 

 following species : — 



Lanius excubitor elegans (6 clutches). Sahara. 



Lanius excubitor dodsoni (1 clutch). Batna, Aures Mts. 



Garrulus glandarius cervicalis (1 clutch). Lambese, Aures Mts. 



Crateropus fulvus (several clutches). Sahara. 



Scotocerca inquietus sakarce (2 clutches). Sahara. 



Sylvia nana deserti (1 clutch). Sahara. 



Ammomanes deserti algeriensis (3 clutches). Edge of the desert. 



Saxicola leucurus syenitica (2 clutches). El Kantara. 



Saxicola lugens hcdopfdla (1 clutch). Biskra. 



Saxicola deserti (1 clutch). Sahara. 



