Transvaal and Umzeilla's Country. 57 



396. SiGMODus RETzii (VValilb.). Retzius's Helraet-shrike. 

 Male, nearly adult, shot 23rd July, 1885, at Umzingeilla^s 



near Olifants river (Transvaal). 



Female, fully adult, same date and place. Eyes yellow ; 

 bill red, but yellow at the tip ; legs red ; eyelids red and 

 deeply notched. 



Whilst hunting in some rather open low bush I came 

 across a family of about ten of these strange birds, of which 

 I only managed to secure two ; in flight and habits they 

 exactly resembled Prioiiops talacoma, frequenting bushes 

 and hunting on the ground or on the lower branches of 

 stumps and trees for insects. Their flight is heavy, and they 

 fly low, and never go far at a time ; but when disturbed they 

 go from bush to bush, and commence feeding again directly 

 they settle. 



[In Mr. Sharpe's edition of Mr. Layard's ' Birds of South 

 Africa,^ a clerical error has occurred in the treating of the 

 genus Sigmodus, which it may be useful here to point out; 

 at p. 407 a description of S. rnfiventris has by some accident 

 been substituted for that of S. tricolor. Both of these species 

 have, however, been correctly described by Mr. Sharpe in 

 his ' Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum,^ vol. iii. 

 pp. 323 and 325.— J. H. G.] 



397. Laniarius sulphureipectus, Less. Yellow- fronted 

 Bush-shrike. 



Male, shot 9th June, 1885^ at Lehtaba river. 



Female, shot 24th July, 1885, at Olifants river (Transvaal). 



I met with these birds in the thick bush on the banks of 

 the rivers, where they find their food amongst the thick 

 creepers, &c. ; they are also to be found searching for insects 

 in the mimosa trees. I met with this species several times in 

 favourable localities, and I also noticed it in 1884 some two 

 hundred miles down the Limpopo, in the thick bush that 

 grows along the banks of that river. 



Laniarius poliocephalus, Licht. {L. icterus of the first 

 edition of Layard's ' Birds of South Africa'). Large Grey- 

 headed Bush-shrike*. 



