Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/442

 53. Tringa senegalla. I.O. ii. 728. ''Killed in Abyssinia by the stream of the Seremai, in the vale of Logo. Its habits are like those of the common lapwing. A bird like this is common in Egypt, which is said to feed out of the mouth of the crocodile!''

54. Tringa, not described? ''Killed on the coast of Abyssinia, behind the village of Madir, in the bay of Amphila. Its stomach on opening it was full of locusts''. Two specimens.

55. Ardea pondiceriana. I.O. ii. 702. ''Two specimens, male and female, found at the bottom of the bay of Amphila; they wait the falling of the tides, and feed on the marine productions: they are, when alive very handsome and active birds. (Quere if not a new genus?)''

56. Alauda, new species. ''(Two specimens.) These larks are common on the desert islands of Amphila, where few land birds could exist: they are also frequent on the coast. Their colour so nearly resembles that of the sandy grouse, that they are with great difficulty distinguished from it. It may with great propriety be termed the "desert lark''."

57. Cursorius Europæus. I.O. ii. 751. This bird was shot on a sandy plain near the Tucazze river in Abyssinia; it has the same character as 56, being completely suited for the desert.

58. Rollus capensis. I.O. ii. 236. Killed in a small river at Gibba, in Abyssinia; manner like a water-hen.

59. to 63. Parra Africana. I.O. ii. 764. Five specimens, four of which were shot in a small fresh water lake belonging to Signior Montéro at Mosambique; the other was shot at Chelicut, in Abyssinia.

64-5. Gallinula, not described. A water bird, killed on the same lake as 59, ''&c. at Mosambique; two specimens''.

Not numbered. Vespertilio. ''A small bat killed at Chelicut, where they are common. A much larger species was seen in the caves of Caleb Negus, near Axum''.

Length 7½ inches. Bill above ¾ of an inch, blackish, and much covered with the feathers of the front; crown of the head hoary, livid colour, lightest about the eyes; a blackish spot on the ears. A collar of white surrounds the neck, and covers all the under parts of the body, as also the under tail coverts, which becomes a dirty white on the belly. The general colour of the back and wings is a brownish black: but a line of white extends along the latter, from the point of the shoulder across the coverts, and down the exterior web, almost to the shaft of the two tertial quills nearest to the body. The remainder are tipped with white, and the rest of the quill feathers have each a large round spot on the inner web, which stretches in an oblique line across the wing, from the tip of the tertials to nearly the root of the first quill feather. But this line is not