B'lrJs of Gazuland. G5 



(leal during the next twelve months, I attempted to liberate 

 those in my aviary, but had the greatest difficulty in inducing 

 them to leave it, those which went out first re-entering time 

 after time. For some weeks afterwards the curious sight 

 might be witnessed daily of a number of Bulbuls clinging 

 to the wires and endeavouring to encage themselves, while, 

 in the evenings, they would roost on the projecting ends of 

 the perches, those remaining inside nestling up to them on 

 the other side of the wire. Even iu April (when I left 

 Africa), after the lapse of a breeding-season, one or two 

 pairs might still be seen daily attacking the ripe bananas 

 hanging up in my verandah, a trifle which they were very 

 welcome to for the sake of their cheery notes about the house. 

 These notes, by the way, are uttered throughout the year 

 (contrast W. L. Sclater, Fauna S. A. vol. ii. p. G3). The 

 natives appear to have the idea that most of those they trap 

 are females, and tell the following quaint story, imitating in 

 each sentence the bird's call-notes : — The male, they say, on 

 finding a snare, will hop on to the switch and call three 

 times: "Ngena, utate, ngilibambile ! (Go in and take it, 

 I'm holding it) ." '^ Q,a, ngisaba ! Qa, ngisaba ! Qa, ngisaba ! 

 (No, I'm afraid)," replies the hen. The male repeats the 

 call and she goes in. Back springs the sapling and she is 

 caught, and her husband crying " Kade ngutshela ! Kade 

 ngutshela ! Kade ngutshela ! (I told you so),'" goes in and 

 secures the bait for himself. 



The nest is placed at from 3 to 15 feet from the ground, 

 in a bramble, a tangled mass of climbei^s, the fork of a tree, 

 in a shrub or clump of tall weeds or on a horizontal branch; 

 twice I have foiind it in a bed of bracken, tastefully poised 

 on a broad frond with but a slight further support from one 

 or two others at the side. It is usually a neat cup composed 

 of fine grasses and enclosed within a lighter but rougher 

 casing of coarse grass-stems intermixed with, or occasionally 

 replaced by, dry herbaceous stems, roots, bark-fibres, or 

 twigs, often those of the common thorny Asparagus 

 angolensis. One noted last season measured 2"8 inches in 

 diameter and 1'75 in depth. The eggs vary considei'ably, 



SER. IX. VOL. II. I 



