Birds uf Gazahutfl. 5 



I have frequently lieard the remark made that we possess 

 few or no singing-liirds in Africa. This argues a lack either 

 of observation or of early rising; for I imagine that nothing 

 finer could be heard in any country than the loud and varied 

 choruSj not only of striking calls but of actual song, which 

 arises from any well-j angled river-valley in Gazaland at about 

 sunrise. After the usual preliminaries, sometimes long before 

 dawUj on the part of Pteraistes humboldti or the other Fran- 

 colins, followed by an occasional warble from a Stouechat 

 or Seed-eater, or the booming conversation of a party of 

 Ground-Hornbills, the first Cossypha heuglini, just as dawn 

 appears, sounds a reveille. Immediately a chorus of the 

 songs of these delightful Robins — finer songsters, to my mind, 

 than English Nightingales — springs from the jungle-clad 

 slopes in every direction, and continues for half an hour 

 or so, becoming more and more interspersed and finally 

 replaced by the liquid ISightingale-notes of Laniurius 

 bertrandi and the mellow calls of the various other Bush- 

 Shrikes. Finally the Sun-birds (and a host of others) 

 join in, perching high in the trees to catch the first rays of 

 the rising sun, and descending with it till they again reach 

 the Leonotis-hlooxns, when they proceed to the business of 

 getting breakfast, and the burst of song g]-adually breaks off 

 into the ordinary chatter of the day. The evening is the 

 next best time ; but during the day the songs are much 

 shorter and more isolated, and this, combined with the fact 

 that, at least in our part of Africa, the settler chooses the 

 short turf of the higher hills for his homestead, while our 

 song-birds prefer the jungle, leads to the erroneous idea 

 that I have just mentioned. 



I am indebted to Mr. David Odendaal for much in- 

 telligent help rendered during the past year, and take 

 this opportunity to offer my best thanks to Mr. G. A. K. 

 Marshall for his valuable assistance, to Dr. Rendie and 

 Messrs. Moore and Baker for the great trouble they have 

 taken in working out, at short notice^ the plants which I 

 had occasion to mention in these notes, and to Dr. Bowdler 

 Sharpe for his kindness in identifying some of my birds. 



