﻿the expedition, who accompanied the army up to Magdala and back, never met with this 

 species though he was on the banks of Lake Ashanghi and on the Takazzi River. It was 

 not until Mr. Blanford and I re-entered the country from Massuah by the valley of the 

 Lebka over into the Anseba valley that we met with Ispidina picta, during the months 

 of July and August, and the only locality besides the Anseba Valley where I saw it 

 was on our return to Massuah on the Lebka a little below Kokai, where I saw one specimen 

 but did not obtain it. I never observed it further than a mile or two from water, and 

 most generally on the banks of the Anseba itself. At the period when met with, I con- 

 cluded it was breeding though I never succeeded in finding the nest. It is insectivorous, 

 and grasshoppers or small locusts seem to form the principal part of its food. When flying 

 rapidly among the bushes it uttered a sharp 'cheep cheep' repeated very quickly; the 

 flight was exactly similar to that of Alcedo ispida. Mr. Blanford obtained one specimen 

 with some black about the bill, doubtless an immature bird." 



The description is taken from a beautiful West African skin in my collection, while 

 the plate represents a specimen in the Leiden Museum. 



