KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLNGAR. BAND 47. NIO 5. 



97 



Spreo superbus (Il upp.). 



Rchw. II, p. 674. 



This beautiful Starling was a very common bird on the acacia-steppe south of Guaso 

 Nyiri around its tributaries Itiolu, Lekiundu etc. rivers, but it was also found in the thorn- 

 bush country north of Guaso Nyiri, for instance at Njoro, where a specimen accidentally 

 was caught in a mouse trap. Between Kagio and Fort Hall it was also observed together 

 with its companion from the acacia-steppe, Ploccpasser. 



Male specimens shot u /a south of Guaso Nyiri had the testidés strongly swelled, 

 and the same was the case with a bird shot near Kagio *°/a. This indicates that the 

 breeding season is somewhat irregular. 



Lamprocolius chalybaeus (Hempr. Ehr.). 



Rchw. II, p. 687. 



Common in and around Nairobi, at Juja farm, Ruiru river, Fort Hall, Kutu, Kagio 

 etc. The northernmost point where I met this bird was at the upper Luazomela river where 

 it enters the edge of the acacia-steppe. It was chiefly seen there on comparatively moist 

 and rich ground, in the dry steppe I did not observe it. 



The specimens vary in size a great deal, the length of wing in 3 males being 147 — 150 

 mm, in 4 females about 130 mm and in a young female not yet in full plumage 123 mm. 

 To judge from this considerable size even in the southernmost specimens from Nairobi 

 it must be assumed that all my specimens belong to the race mentioned above and not 

 to L. ch. sycobius. 



Once when I had shot a female specimen in a big acacia at Luazomela river the male 

 followed the wounded mate, when it fell in a bush, calling till it was shot itself. In the 

 end of March the males had swelled testidés. 



Pyrrhocheira walleri (Shell.). 



Rchw. II, p. 6<J7. 



Two specimens of this species were obtained. The first in the primeval forest on 

 the eastern slopes of Kenia about one days march from Embu. The birds were then seen 

 feeding on berries in the tops of very high trees. This was the 27th of January and the 

 specimen was a male with swelled testidés. The other specimen was shot in a tree at a 

 place where the forest and the bamboos mixed, 2700 m above the sea. Although the 

 distribution of this bird extends from Uganda to Lake Nyassa, it does not seem to have 

 been recorded from Kenia before. It is evidently a f orest-lo ving bird. Sjöstedt found 

 it also feeding on berries in the rain forest of Kilimanjaro. 



Cinnamopterus tenuirostris (Rtipp.). 



Rchw. II, p. 703. 



Only one specimen of this species was obtained viz. a female bird shot at Fort Hall 

 31 /a in a single tree standing in a shamba. 



K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. Band 47. N:o 5. 13 



