77 



and the following families my names are always open 

 to correction. 



Perhaps the commonest of all our Shrikes is a 

 long-tailed brown-coloured bird, called by the Man- 

 dingoes, " Cliaja." Its haunts are the bush and low 

 trees, generally close to the villages, where it associates 

 in small parlies, feeding mainly on grasshoppers. 



Another common species is the Black-headed 

 Shrike (Te/ep/ion7is'), which utters a loud sweet whistle, 

 quite a song in fact ; the general colour above is 

 brownish, below white, and crown black. Besides 

 these and other plain-coloured birds, there are the 

 gaudy Bush-Shrikes, one, I think a Lanianus, being 

 black above with a 3'ellow eyebrow% and having the 

 whole under surface bright scarlet, and another, 

 Malaconohis sulphureipect2cs, grey above and yellow 

 below; these are generally found in fairly dense 

 bush, and show a particular partiality for the matted 

 undergrowth which borders many of the swamps, and 

 are much shyer birds than their plainly dressed 

 allies. There is also a Shrike which is either the 

 Woodchat (an occasional visitor to Britain) or a nearly 

 related species, which frequents open country, 

 especially the corn fields, where it uses the tall stalks 

 which are left standing when the heads are cut at 

 harvest-time, as posts of vantage from which it can 

 espy and swoop on its prey. The Wood-Shrikes 

 (^Prionops phunatus) are also generally distributed 

 throughout the countr\^ especially on the many iron- 

 stone ridges which intersect the country, and which 

 are clothed with thin scrub and thorn bushes, among 

 which these birds flit in noisy parties of a dozen or 

 more, hurrying from tree to tree, as if every moment 

 was of vital importance, and as if they were forbidden 

 to stop longer than half a minute on each tree. They 

 are altogether very striking birds with black and 

 white pied plumage, a long white crest and peculiar 



