lyi BIRDS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



facility with which it can be preserved, ants' eggs, meal- 

 worms, and other insects, including the familiar black 

 beetle {Blatta orientalis), sufficing to keep it in rude health, 

 providing, of course, that its wants in the matter of 

 temperature are understood and attended to, for exposure 

 to cold for any length of time is very injurious to it. 



Shamah. — The head, neck, back, and wing coverts, as 

 well as the breast and tail are jetty black, but the rump is 

 white ; the wings are dull black, and the outermost feathers 

 of the tail have white tips ; the breast, belly, and tail are 

 deep chestnut. In length it measures 12 inches, nearly 8 

 of which belong to the tail. 



The female is browner, and her feathers have little gloss; 

 her tail also is somewhat shorter. 



The shamah is supposed to be the best of the Indian 

 songsters, and is frefpiently caged, living very well on a 

 paste made with parched chuma(?) mixed with yolk of 

 hard-boiled eggs, to which maggots and other insects must 

 be added, and, in England, ants' eggs. 



The shamah has bred in England, laying four greenish 

 blue eggs, and rearing the j^oung without difficulty; but 

 when these arc able to cater for themselves they must be 

 removed from the society of their parents, or they would be 

 killed by the male. There are two broods per season. 



THE TITS. 



A small group, of which we can only notice the follow- 

 ing : — 



Family — Parida. 



Genus — Liothnx, L. In tens. 



Yellow- Belli ED Liothrix.— It is certainly an error to 



