Birds of Gazalund. 63 



86. SiGMODUs RETzii TRICOLOR. Zambcsi Helmet-Shrike. 



Chindao : " Mariganyama." 



Rh., P. I have come across flocks of this handsome 

 Helmet-Shrike not infrequently during the past year in 

 the open woods about Chirinda, and during my journey 

 across the low veld I found it in quite a number of localities, 

 securing specimens at Gezanye, Arucate, and Indabila. 

 Most of the birds in these parties were in immature 

 plumage. They commonly utter all together a low pleasant 

 note, but their vocabulary is varied and some of their calls 

 distinctly quaint ; I quote the following from my note-book 

 (Sept. 8th) : — '' A flock of Sigmodus retzii was busy insect- 

 hunting in the branches of a small grove of Uapaca Kirkiana, 

 near the western drift of the Inyamadzi. On my firing a 

 shot they uttered a most striking note of apparent wonder: 

 ' Turee-whoooo ! ' slowly, followed by a rapid ' Turika- 

 whoo Turika-whoo turika-whoo ! ' I subsequently sighted 

 them again, but they were now thoroughly alarmed and, 

 keeping to the tops of the higher trees and uttering a 

 peculiar rolling guttural note, they took long flights from 

 grove to grove and finally crossed the valley .^^ 



The bill, eye-wattles, and feet of an adult male were 

 vermilion, the former becoming yellowish at the tip; in a 

 female not actually breeding the extreme point and culmen 

 were dusky, the irides deep gamboge (nearly orange), and 

 the feet orange-vermilion ; Avhile in an immature male the 

 bill was dark horn-colour, paler and yellowish on the lower 

 surface of the gonys and along the basal half of the com- 

 missure, and the irides light brown. The stomachs of these 

 birds contained beetles, larvre, a fair-sized mantis, and a large 

 grasshopper. 8*86 inches is the average measurement in the 

 flesh of four of these birds and 8*7 and 9*1 the variation. 



87. Prionops talacoma. Smithes Helmet-Shrike. 



Chiudao : '' Mariganyama." 



Rh. These birds will sometimes follow a grass-fire, 

 feeding on the roasted insects left in its wake. Four 

 specimens measured in the flesh vary from 7'75 to 8 incbes. 



