98 COLIID^ COLIUS 



line of white bordered on either side by a patch of black ; below 

 this is a patch of dark maroon on the rump ; the upper tail-coverts 

 ashy like the back ; two outer pair of tail-feathers edged with white ; 

 below, the throat is like the back gradually assuming a pink shade 

 on the breast ; the abdomen and lower tail-coverts are ochreous ; 

 the greater under wing-coverts are black, contrasting with the 

 median and lesser series which are white. 



Iris and a very small patch of bare skin round the eye black ; 

 bill, bluish-white or pale cobalt at the base, the tip of the upper 

 mandible black, of the lower yellowish-brown ; legs and feet coral- 

 red, claws black. 



Length 13 to li ; Vv'ing 3'40 ; tail 8 5 to 9'5 ; culmen 0-i5 : 

 tarsus 0'75. 



Sexes alike ; a nestling resembles the adult but is without the 

 maroon patch on the rump, the upper mandible was bright 

 yellowish-green, and the lower one dull black. 



Distribution.— The White-backed Mouse-bird appears to be 

 altogether a more western form than the Speckled Mouse-bird ; it 

 is abundant at Cape Town and about the western half of the Colony, 

 and extends through the western part of the Orange Eiver Colony 

 and the Transvaal to German south-west Africa, where it appears 

 to be widely distributed. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony — Cape and Stellen- 

 bosch divisions (S. A. Mus.), Oudtshoorn (Victorin), Ceres and 

 Griqualand West (Burchell), Orange river at Upington (Bradshaw) 

 and near Aliwal North (Whitehead) ; Orange Eiver Colony — 

 Jacobsdal district (Holub) ; Transvaal — Potchefstroom district 

 (Ayres) ; German south-west Africa — Great Namaqualand to the 

 Okavango (Andersson). 



Habits. — This bird closely resembles the preceding one in its 

 habits. It is gregarious, it roosts in companies congregated into a 

 ball ; it loves thick bush, where it will creep about like a parrot using 

 both bill and claws and often hanging with its head downwards with- 

 out inconvenience. It is essentially a fruit-eater, though stated by 

 Andersson not to despise insects and young shoots of plants when 

 its regular food is scarce. Its note is a harsh chatter, syllabled by 

 le Vaillant as " qui ve, qui ve," to which it gives vent when flying 

 from one tree to another. Its flesh is very palatable. Nests 

 of this species have been taken by Andersson on September 26, 

 October 16, and December 29 ; they were usually built in a bush and 

 were composed externally of grass and twigs, lined internally with 



