Birds of Gazaland. 47 



Rh., P. Witli us this Butcher-bird is by no means 

 abundant, but it is widely distributed and may be seen 

 occasionally perched on the top of some commanding shrub 

 or tree, jerking its long tail and uttering its harsh " Twee- 

 twee ! " I have noted it most frequently in the neighbour- 

 hood of Chirinda, in the Chikaraboge Valley and at Maruma, 

 where the young orange-trees are a favourite perch. When 

 they were in flower last September, a " Laksman ■" might be 

 seen perched on them daily, with its head and body tilted 

 forward and its long tail projecting horizontally, gaining an 

 easy livelihood from the swarms of Jiyraenoptera and other 

 insects which were attracted by the sweet-scented blossoms, 

 while doubtless it found the thorns of the orange-trees useful 

 as hooks. 



I find a few nests of this species every season ; it prefers 

 isolated trees in more or less open grass-country, and builds 

 a large, strong, but somewhat handsome nest, usually more or 

 less concealed by foliage, of the stems and leaves of the common 

 "everlasting" {Helichrijsum tiitens), mixed with a little 

 bracken or grass and braced with fine, tough twigs or roots ; 

 the lining consists of fine roots, flower-pedicels, or grasses, and 

 is usually neat and fairly abundant. In the neighbourhood 

 of Chirinda, at all events, the external nest is, as a general 

 rule, almost entirely constructed of the first named material, 

 the stems of the '' everlasting,'^ with their yellow flowers 

 and white downy leaves still attached, being either wound 

 together as they are or formed into an extremely tono-h 

 white felt. The nest varies somewhat in size with the 

 method of construction adopted, two specimens in my 

 collection measuring respectively in external diameter 3'6 (a 

 felt nest) and 5 inches, and in depth 3 and 4*5 inches. The 

 internal measurements vary less, the cups being roughly 

 3 inches in diameter by from \-7o to 2 inches in depth. 

 There are two common types of e^^ — one bluish, greenish, or 

 greyish-white, with numerous spots and small blotches of 

 light olive-brown and grey ; the other far duller, and finely 

 speckled all over with very pale dull grey and brown spots on a 

 creamy ground : in both these types the markings frequently 



