96 COLIID^ COLIUS 



to form a loose crest; wings and tail ashy-brown, not vermiculated ; 

 below, the throat, upper breast and sides of the body ashy-brown, 

 strongly vermiculated with darker, the lower breast, under wing- 

 and tail-coverts ochreous, darkest on the coverts ; lining of the 

 quills and lower side of the tail-feathers chestnut-buff. In some 

 specimens the forehead and chin are dark, almost black, perhaps 

 due to staining with fruit. 



Iris dark brown, bare skin round the eye black ; bill, upper 

 mandible black, lower, bluish-brown ; legs and feet purplish-brown. 



Length 13-0 to 14-0 ; wing 3-70 ; tail 8-0 to 8-5 ; culmen 0-5 ; 

 tarsus 09. 



The sexes are alike. In the South African Museum are a 

 curious pair of semi-albinos in which the crest, a few feathers 

 on the back, the tail and the lower parts from the breast down- 

 wards are pure white, the rest of the bird being normally coloured ; 

 they were shot near Goudini in the Worcester division of the 

 Colony. 



Distribution. — This Mouse-bird is found throughout the greater 

 part of South Africa from Cape Town (where, however, it is less 

 common than the other two species) to the Zambesi ; so far as I am 

 aware it has not been noticed in the western Transvaal, Bechuanaland, 

 Ehodesia, and German south-west Africa, but this may be through 

 lack of observation. North of the Zambesi this bird has been 

 hitherto only obtained in Nyasaland. The following are the 

 principal localities : Cape Colony — Cape, Stellenbosch, Tulbagh, 

 Worcester, Caledon, Knysna and Middelburg divisions (S. A. Mus.), 

 Griquatown (B. Hamilton), Port Elizabetli and East London 

 (Eickards), King Wilhams Town (Brit. Mus.), Port St. John 

 (Shortridge) ; Natal — Durban and Pinetown (Shelley), Escourt 

 (Eeid), Ulundi and Eshowe (Woodward) ; Transvaal — Swaziland 

 (Buckley), Barber ton (Eendall), and Macamac in Lydenburg 

 (Barratt) ; Portuguese east Africa — Tete and below on the Zambesi 

 (Alexander). 



Habits. — The habits of all Mouse-birds are very similar; they 

 are to be seen almost invariably in small parties of from six to twelve 

 individuals ; even when the females are incubating the males keep 

 together. They affect thick bush where they climb like tits, crawl- 

 ing about and placing themselves in all sorts of different attitudes ; 

 in doing this the whole of the tarsus is often applied to the branch 

 acting like the sole of a foot and is often much rubbed in conse- 

 quence. When alarmed they fly off one after another with short 



