104 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



white, tihe secondaries edged externally also ; upper tail- 

 coverts Trhite, Trith diLfky ibars ; icentral tail-fea'there 

 vriih. white inner webs, outer feathea-s cbliquely banded 

 with white, as usual ; nasal plumes Ibuff, with black 

 tips ; top of iheiad, including eyeibix)w, and nape black, 

 the feathers cf forehead and erown with scaj'let tips ; 

 the remainder spotted with w-hit« ; hind-neck wfliiity- 

 brown, with dusky bars; ear-covert.s buffish-brciwn. 

 barred 'w;th black ; sides of face and neck and under 

 surface dull white, buffi?h on fl;inlis and thighs; under 

 wing-coverts ihuffish-white, a dusky spot rvear base of 

 primarie'S ; bill horn-Mack, lower mandible paler ait 

 base ; feet leaden-igrey ; irides greyish-brown. FamaJe 

 diffens in having the whole top of head wihite-spotlteid, 

 the scarlet tips to tihe feathers being albsent. Hab., 

 Prtxviriices of Bahia and Rio Janeiro, and westiward into 

 Pamaguiay. 



Burmedsiter (" Sy«iiematisc<he UtJ>er?icht," II., p. 245) 

 says : " This elej^ant little (bird inliabits the foires.ts of 

 the coastal region, and is not rare therein : its mode 

 of life is entirely that of the Golderests.* I could not 

 distinguish its voice from that bird. Towards autumn 

 the birds unite into little companies ; in the summer one 

 only sees ithem in pains. Tlifiey then nest in holes in 

 trees, sometimes quite near to settlements, as Schom- 

 bergJc observed." I have discovered nothing more re- 

 specting the wild ilife of this tiny Woodpecker. It was 

 imported in 1860. and reached the Zoological Gardens 

 of Am€lterda.m, buit appears net to have come to (hand 

 since that date. 



COLIES (Coludce). 



I islhaH iio\w proceed to tlhe Colies. or Mouse-birds, a 

 group of interesting little acrobats having ail the toes 

 of the [foot directed forwa.rds. In the old days, (before 

 their anatomy had been studied, they were sup-posed ito 

 be Finches, to some of which the general form of the 

 bill and the crested character of the head give them a 

 cepbain res'^mb lance. They ^Te, however, geneirally 

 rega.rded as related to the "Woodpeckers, Kinglfislhers, 

 and Hornlbills. (Mr. Pyoraft, however, believes them to 

 came nearer to t(ie Swifts. They are somewhat dull- 

 coloured, fruit -eating birds, ranging from .Abyssinia 

 southwards to the Cape of Good Hope, They (build 

 more or less cup-shaped or open -nests, in which, again, 

 they remind one of some of the FrinriUlicliT, and tbe 

 e?gs. though while, or nearly so, do not possess the 

 highly-polished character of those of Woodpeckers or 

 Kinsrliihers, (but are dull and chalky, like those of the 

 Swifts, wihiicih are also dead^white ; they, however, are 

 shorter, and I'sually flecked and sci-awled with rust- 

 red. 



Stri-WEd or Speckled Colt {Calius slriatiis). 



Above ashy-lb rownish, paler on head, diarker on rump, 

 indistinotlv vermiculated, the neck and mantle being 

 trjiverBed by a few transverse brown lines : wings and 

 tail not vermiculated ; primaries brown externally to- 

 wards the base; central tail-feathers ashy, with brown 

 shafts ; the remainder ashy and white-edged externaJly, 

 with reddi'sbJbrovvn shafts, and with somewhat 

 rufescent inner -webs ; feathers of crown elongated into 

 a long, loose crest, which is depressed wben food is 

 taken ; the head more ashy than the fc-ack, pale ashy- 

 brown on sides of face and ear-coverts : forehead an i 

 lores -d-uM reddish; throat, breast, and sides of bcdy 

 ashy-brown, -with well-defined darker vermicula-tions ; 



* How thie can be, when it neets in holes in trees, I will 

 not pretend to unden^tand': pofgdbly its actions may to sonvp 

 extent resemble those of Reaulus. but I t>honld have thought they 

 would more nearly approach thoee of AcreduJa. 



low«r itraaist, flanks, under wing an-d tail-ooveirts 

 oohreous-buff, rufescerat on under tail-coverts; quill 

 lining -and tail be)lo-w chest-nut --bufE ; bill with upper 

 ma.ndi(ble black, the lower bluisb-brown ; feet purplish- 

 brawn ; irides dark brown ; orbital skin black.* Female 

 with the crown of the bead pa-ler and even more ashy 

 tha-n in the male ; the beak donger and bi-o-ader, with 

 more cm-\-ed upper mandible. -Haib., South Alfrioa, from 

 the Cape to the Zambesi, 



INIessrs, Stark and Sclater (" Birds of South Africa," 

 Vol, III,, pp. 96, 97) observe : "The habits of all Mouse- 

 birds are very similar. They axe to be seen almost in- 

 variably in small parties of from six to twelve indivi- 

 du-alls ; even when the females are inculbating, the males 

 keep t'0ig-et(h6r. They affect thick bush, wihere they 

 climb like Tits, crawling albouit -a-nd 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 consequence. When alanned. they fly off one after 

 the other, with -short, direct flight, convpared by Le 

 Vaillant to an arrow shot from a bow. The Mouse- 

 bird feeds e-i^tirely on fruit, and is generally to be seen 

 in a ga.rden as soon as figs and loquats, of which it is 

 .specially fond, become ripe. During the fruit season 

 they do a good deal of dam-age in the iwestern portion 

 of the Colony. At night-time they are st-ated by Aynes 

 to roost head downwards in small companies. -Shelley 

 found a nest at Pinet-own. in Natal, on March 15th, 

 Stark at the same pace on Dec. 18th. In the l-aitter oaee 

 l.he nefrt. which was pl.iced at the top of an orange tree, 

 about -15 feet above the ground, was an open one. rest- 

 ing on and smu'ounded by twigs of the bush ; it was 

 rather small, and was loosely built of pieces of lb-ark 

 three or four inches long, of "the Kaffir tea plant, of a 

 flowering weed, and -small t-wigs : it was lined with 

 (jreeti narrow fronds and leaves. There were three quite 

 freith eggs in the nest, and there were enlarged eggs 

 in the o\-arv of -the female which was secured. The 

 clutch is therefore more than three, iprolbablv five to 

 seven. The eggs are rough, and wen-e probabi.y origm- 

 ally chalky ^w1hllte. but are a good deal s.tained wiith 

 dirt. They are ovals, somewhat pointed at the acute 

 end. and measure on an average 0.92 x 0-62. 



" Mr. Ayi-cs was the first to notice this bird s ha-bit 

 of lining the nest with fresh leaves, and suggested that 

 perhaps" dampness was neces.'ary for incubation." 



Dr. F. Kendall {The Ibis. 1896, p, 174) says that the 

 stomach of a male which he shot contained oval seeds. 

 May not these have been the kernels of some fruit? 



The late Mr. J. Abrahams first imported several pairs 

 of this -species in 1865, but the London Zoological 

 G.ardens appear not to have acquired the species until 

 1885, when 'they purchased a single example. 



Mr. Graham" Renshaw {The AviciiUiiral Magazine, 

 Second Series, Vol, I,, pp. 174-177) gives an account of 

 a specimen in his possession. He tells us that when 

 eating a grape it shifted it from the beak to the foot, 

 which grasped it in a singular monkey-like manner 

 while the bird proceeded solemnly to make a meal. He 

 fed it upon ants' eggs, mealworms, grapes, apples, and 

 pears, and on one occasion he found it dragging about 

 the dead and partly devoured body of an Avadavat. He 

 says that the bird used to sleep lying prone on a con- 

 venient ledge or shelf, looking as if dead, or at the last 

 gasp. Its note was a weak chii-p, but it squarked 

 rapidly when much alarmed. 



* Some exaniplos have the forehead and chin blackened, but 

 whether from fraying of the feathers or staining ivith fruit is 

 undecided. 



