BIRDS OF THE BUFFALO BASIN 85 



covered with faint slaty-grey streaks as practically to 

 hide the ground colour, and also has a very distinct zonal 

 hand of a darker shade forming a ring at the larger end. 



Roth at Pirie and at Snmerville this species has nested 

 close to the Mission house, hanging its nest in a tuft of 

 dependent leaves in a gumtree at a height of from fifteen 

 to twenty feet from the ground. The male maintaias his 

 interest in his mate throughout, whinnying after her as 

 she passes to and fro, but does not seem to take any part 

 in actually feeding the young. 



^for.se-Coloured Honeysucker — Ch. verreauxi (A. 

 Sm.) — Mr. Center, who has shewn me a specimen ob- 

 tained in East London, informs me that this honeysucker 

 is common in that neighbourhood. In the portion of our 

 area best known to myself the bird occurs in scanty 

 numbers, frequenting not only the forest itself but also 

 the w^ooded banks of the streams that flow^ out of it. 

 While preferring the opener parts of the forest or parts 

 that are tending to degenerate into scrub, this ^^pecies 

 wanders also to suitable feeding places in the neighbour 

 hood and used occasionally to visit the Kaffirbooms 

 beside our cottage at Pirie. Being quite inconspicuously 

 coloured it readily eludes the eye of an observer, but 

 from 13 November to February 8 — w^hich is the period 

 of song entered in my note-book — it cannot escape his 

 ear. The song is a simple production of three notes jip 

 jojee, uttered from a tree towering above the scrub or 

 commanding an open space. The song may be preceded 

 by a repetition of the alarm tzin tzin, or it may be inter 

 rupted to allow of the bird's going into a frenzy of excite- 

 ment as it sometimes does in the presence of an intruder. 



Sitting on a twig it will call and gesticulate wildly^j 

 uttering its alarm in a long-continued rattle and also 

 resorting to another rattling cry which I cannot satis- 

 factorily transcribe. 



Olive Coloured Honeysucker — Ch. olivacea (A. Sm.) 

 — has not come under my personal observation and does 

 not seem to occur in the forest area. Both Center and 



