42 EINAR LÖNNBERG, BIRDS. 



Ibididse. 



Ibis sethiopica (Lath.). 



Rchw. I, p. 321. 



During the dry season I did not observe a single specimen of the Holy Ibis, but 

 when the rains had begun, flocks of this beautiful bird were seen in the beginning of April 

 at Roiru river some distance north of Nairobi. 



Ciconiidae. 



Leptoptilos crumenifer [(Cuv.) Less.]. 



Rchw. I, p. 338. 



The Marabou-Stork is common everywhere in steppe-country as well as in the thorn- 

 bush north of Guaso Nyiri. As soon as some big game has been killed they appear on 

 the scene together with the Vultures. They also sit watching near the camps, and 

 investigate carefully old camp-sites if anything eatable should be found. At Guaso 

 Nyiri I saw once, when I had killed an Eland, a Marabou-Stork rob a piece of lung from 

 a Kite and of course, swallow it at once. . They used to come down to Guaso Nyiri to 

 drink, and were sometimes seen in numbers on the sandbanks and in the trees fringing 

 the river. 



It also occurred on the steppe at Nairobi, and I saw Marabou-Storks several times 

 fly to their roosting place in a forest not far from the town mentioned just before sundown. 



Ciconia ciconia (L.). 



Rchw. I, p. 345. 



Storks were seen in great number on the acacia-steppe at Luazomela 3 /a and on a 

 grass-steppe with a few scattered trees between Punda Melia and Blue Post */*• 



Single specimens were seen now and then f. i. near Punda Melia 21 /i and at Luazo- 

 mela 20 /3. The Storks are sometimes killed by the natives who use the skin for making 

 a kind of feather caps. 



Scopidae. 



Scopus umbretta Gm. 



Rchw. I, p. 353. 



In consequence of a prolonged drought, and insufficient rains many small rivulets 

 had either disappeared, or been reduced to a minimum of water during my stay in British 

 East Africa. The Hammerhead had therefore left some places where it even had been 

 nesting formerly. Such a nesting place was shown to me by Mr Hampson not far from 

 Nairobi. It was a single tree standing at a small rivulet in a country which otherwise 

 was occupied by shambas. I did not see any birds of this kind before I had come to Guaso 



