548 Mr. L. B. Mouritz on the 



155. I Cinnyricinclus verreauxi. Plum-coloured Starling. 

 Pholidavges leucogaster verreauxi Boc. ; Scl. i. p. 44. 



A not nncommon visitor, departing for its nesting-grounds 

 about the middle of May. The old birds are generally 

 rather sliy, but at the same time I have noticed them 

 greedily devouring pepper-berries in the immediate vicinity 

 of habitations. The sexes rarely consort together during 

 their stay with us, although towards the end of March, or in 

 the first week of April, those flocks which have not departed, 

 appear to break up, and I think in many cases pairing takes 

 place before they set out for their breeding haunts. 



A young male shot on February 7 was in rather an interest- 

 ing stage of transitional plumage. All but the first three 

 primaries on each wing showed traces of metallic colora- 

 tion ; outer greater wing-coverts metallic throughout and 

 the inner brown ; median wing-coverts brown except where 

 the moulted ones had given place to semi-grown metallic 

 feathers ; lesser wing-coverts mostly mottled except for a 

 few on each wing ; scapulars — some metallic on the left wing 

 only ; a patch of seven or eight metallic feathers on the 

 back (where present in the adult female) ; two or three higher 

 up at side ; a good many metallic feathers amid upper tad- 

 coverts ; one of the centre rectrices wholly metallic ; two 

 or three metallic feathers on each side of the neck ; one on 

 the throat ; several outer under wing-coverts metallic at 

 bases and mottled brown and white at tips. On March yO, 

 1912, I shot a male in full plumage, which, in lacking the 

 three-quarter white outer web to the outermost feathers of 

 the tail, was evidently referable to the northern Cinnyricinclus 

 leucogaster — not previously recorded from southern Africa. 



156. :j: Lamprocolius phoenicopterus bispecularis. Lesser 

 Ked-shouldered Glossy Starling. 



Common, and evidently resident. 



157. J Lamprocolius chalybeus sycobius. Peters' Glossy 

 Starling. 



Lamprocolius sycobius Licht. ; Scl. i. p. 41. 



Siud. " ikvvczi/' a term also applied to the last species. 



