Birds of GazaJund. 91 



hush at Arucate and in the Madanda forests, and I also 

 met with it on the Muzala, at Muchukwana, and at Malata. 

 It is to a very large extent a ground-feeder, in spite of 

 the faet that in the evenings it may often be heard calling 

 high in the trees of Chirinda : evidence for this is that it can 

 be trapped very readily by means of stone dead-falls baited 

 with Melolonthid larvie and that a somewhat large series of 

 its stomachs which I have examined proved to contain a 

 considerable proportion of ground-frequenting insects. 

 I have also several times watched it keeping within 

 live or six feet of the ground, noting on one of these 

 occasions in my diary that '' the bird kept low and mostly 

 within two feet of the ground — it never rose to more than 

 four feet, — now sitting perfectly still with its head down 

 between its shoulders, now taking short flights from twig to 

 twig and keeping the ground below it under observation, and 

 again at intervals uttering its loud cry accompanied by the 

 usual circular flight. Once it suddenly dropped to the ground, 

 dashed the dry leaves to one side and the other by two or tliree 

 rapid sidelong blows of its bill, and returned to its perch a foot 

 above the ground with a fair-sized object in its mouth. This 

 it smashed once or twice against the twig and swallowed." It 

 is a somewhat lethargic bird, sitting still on a twig sometimes 

 for many minutes together with only a slight upward quiver 

 of the wings at intervals, and on the Kurumadzi a male once 

 allowed me to pass thus only five or six feet below liitn, 

 apparently trusting to his immobility to escape notice. 



Its note (which is heard throughout the year) and its 

 peculiar display are, however, the most interesting points 

 about this Flycatcher. The former is remarkably loud for 

 such a small bird and at a little distance strongly reminds me 

 of one of the calls of Turtur capicola ; not the Dove's full 

 " ko-korrro ! " but its shorter and harsher stridulous note, 

 which is actually more frequently heard. I have seen the 

 Flycatcher's call represented by the syllable " kroo,'' which 

 gives a fair idea of it as heard at a distance ; but at close 

 quarters the spelling '' karuerr ! " with a strong roll through- 

 out, more exactly represents the sound. Usually the bird i§^ 



