480 
Mr. R. B. Sharpe on Birds from Fao. 
one day I was rubbing up some brass hinges, and left them 
to steep in salad-oil into which a fly tell; the bird immediately 
seized and swallowed it, and in a few hours after got a fit, 
which recurred several times during the next two days, and 
on the third day it died. 
I have known the old birds forsake a nest after it has been 
once examined, and even to stop building when it has been 
observed, and leave the locality altogether.] 
13. Muscicapa grisola, L.; Sharpe, op. cit. iv. p. 151 ; 
Blanf. t. c. p. 143. 
[No. 85, shot 10th May, 1884. 
No. 90, shot 14th May, 1884. Apparently the only birds 
seen by me.] 
14. Muscicapa parva, Bechst.; Sharpe, op. cit. iv. p. 161. 
Ery thro sterna parv a, Blanf. t.c. p. 144. 
No. 116, a young bird. 
[Shot 10th October, 1884. Only bird observed.] 
15. Pratincola rubetra (L.); Sharpe, t. c. p. 179; Blanf. 
t. c. p. 146. 
[No. 81. Migratory ; arriving in winter and staying till 
spring. 
The one in your possession was shot in May 1884; one 
other I shot in November 1883.] 
16. Pratincola hemprichii (Ehr.); Sharpe, t. c. p. 193; 
Blanf. t. c. p. 145. 
No. 50. Two males and a female. 
Although not showing quite so much white on the tail as 
Abyssinian specimens, all the examples sent by Mr. Cumming 
have the base of the tail conspicuously white. 
[Winter visitant, shot in November and March.] 
17. Sylvia nisoria (Bechst.) ; Seebohm, Cat. B. Brit. 
Mus. v. p. 6 (1881) ; Blanf. t. c. p. 174. 
[No. 86. Shot in May; most probably found in spring and 
autumn.] 
