en 



The Wandering TreePie. 



especiailly in the viicinity of cattle parks ; there the 

 manure is proibed. beetles and locusts caught, and oooa- 

 sionaiUy a hutt.erfiy seized when flying. When the detvr 

 dries up, and the cattle are driven oat, the flock follows 

 alt no great distance, or com€s quite confidingly into 

 the farms and etaWes. The call-note is a dear, loud 

 wliistle. like that of the Alpine Chough [Pi/rrJioro7-ax 

 alpituis). Action and bearing on the earth more 

 ^lagpie-like, the tail is then carried horizontially. and 

 vis jerked up and expanded, and, particularly in Wie 

 sunshine, Pfilnslomu.^* coquets like the glistening forais 

 of Laimpro^tornie, and, chattering, approaches the maile 



• The g&avs to which Heuglin referred this speciec. — A. G. B. 



in ord€>r clearly to attra£.t its aittenltioii. Twvaivls even- 

 ing the dispersed pairs and families assemble in the 

 vicinity at their night quarters, the aforctsa-id Doleb 

 palms, att-er the fashion of Starlings, engage during 

 flight in vai-iious sports and evolutions, and only after 

 the commenccmeait «f niglift settle down to silence aaid 

 rest." 



Mir. J. S. Budgeltt. in an account of the orniilthologv 

 of the Gamibiia Kivn- I'/'hr JhU, 1901, p. 491), says of 

 tlliJs sipecies: " Ml 'mtliy Island. Very coonimon. The 

 males have red beaks, tlir femiales Mack; they adt as 

 scavengers." According to Heuglin, the red^billed birds 

 are the vonng. 



Captain Boyd Alexander says [TJip. Ihis, 1902, p. 

 307) ; " This is a common speoijes in the open country, 

 consorting together in sniall flocks, and always to be 

 found where oattle are grazing. It nests in the tops of 

 tall cocoanut trees. Its flight is Straight and steady, 

 and, when travelling togeither, these birds give veiut to 

 a series of short, sharp cries, almost in unison. 



"The males have the iris claret-coloou'ed, the females 

 hazel." 



ilr. F. J. Jat<kisoii, describing birds collected during 

 a journey to the Buwenzori range [The Ibis, 1906, 

 p. 570). olbserves : "The only two occasions on iwhich 

 I have seen these birds were at the same place, though 

 on dift'erenit days. Each time three indlividuials were 

 oibserved. The place was aji open plain, with slioift 

 grass, and a few palm trees dotted about, in which the 

 birds perched. They never seemed to stay long in one 

 place, but flew from tree to tree, and very low to the 

 gi'ound, as if tihey intended to settle every moment. 

 Their note had a curious and somawhat harslh saund." 



I have discovered no definite account of the nidifioa- 

 tion of this Magpie. It fi.rat arrived lat the London Zoo- 

 logical Grardensin 1865, then in 1872 ; in the Amsterdiam 

 Gardens in 1886 ; in 1891 the deader, G. Boisz, imiported 

 it ; and in 1892 dt reached the Berlin Gardens. 



Wandering Teee-Pie [Dendrocilta riifa). 



Above deep rust-coloured, more orange on the lower 

 back, rumip, and upper tail-coveiits ; head and neck 

 sooty^brown, passing graduailly into the rusty colouning 

 of the back ; wings black, the least coverts" dull grey, 

 the median and great-ex coverts ashy-whitish, as also 

 the outer webs of the inner secondaries ; tail grey, 

 broadly tipped with black ; lores and thiioat blackish ; 

 remaiinder of undea--pai'ts bright fulvous ; under winig- 

 coverts and edge of wing grey, witlh a waiah of fulvous ; 

 bill black ; feet dark slaty"; irides Mood-red. The 

 female is browner, and has a much stronger bill. Halb., 

 India, ranging through Assam and Burma to Tenassemm. 



Jerdon says of this speoies ("Birds of India," Vol. U., 

 pp. 314, 515" : " In the plains it is most commion in well- 

 wooded districts, and in the Oarnatic and bare talble- 

 land it is ortly found occasionally about the larger 

 towns and in hilly jungles ; but, as you go .further north, 

 it is to be seen in every grove and garden, and about 

 every village. It occuiis singly oocasionally, very fre- 

 quentlly in pairs, and now and theai in small parties. 

 It flies" from tree to tree with a slow undulating flight. 

 At times it feeds almO'Sit exclusively ui>on fruit, but 

 at other times on insects, grasshopipers, locusts, man- 

 tides, and oaterpillans. The natives always assert that 

 it destroys young birds and eggs, aaid consider it of the 

 Shrike genu's. >li-. Smith says ' he has kno.^vn this bird 

 enter a"covered verandah of a house and nip off half 

 a dozen young geraniums, visit a cage of small birds, 

 begin bv stealing the grain, and end by killing aird 

 eating the birds, and rei)eating these visits daily till 

 destroved.' Mr. Buckland informs me that he has 

 known it enter a verandah and catch bats. It has a 



