Dr. E. Hopkinson—The White-crowned Chat-thrush 177


and eating English grasshoppers, all within sixteen hours of leaving the

boat at Liverpool. I have since heard that it bathed within an hour

or two of arrival, took readily to the soft food supplied, and settled

down well. I hope that it will long survive and that we may hear from

its owner more about its characteristics in captivity, and especially

(if it is a male) as to whether it has a song or not.


I myself never heard any song from these birds. The only sounds

I know them to make, either in a wild state or in confinement, are a

rather harsh, single whistle and a pretty constant scolding chatter,

which gets louder and more strident under the influence of fright or

excitement, and is certainly not at all musical. Other members of the

genus, however, are known to be good songsters, so perhaps ours may

be also.


Knowing this to be the case, I used to attribute a song consisting

of a series of sweet liquid notes to these Chat-Thrushes, but later on

I found I was mistaken, and that the real utterer of this song was the

Senegal Bush-Shrike, Tschagra senegala, which is about the most

noteworthy of Gambian songsters.


This genus ( Cossypha ) is found throughout Africa. In the Gambia

we have two species, C. albicapilla and verticalis, which have much

the same coloration but differ in size, 10 as against 71 inches in length,

the former, the species I brought home, being the larger.


Both species distinctly suggest large Redstarts in plumage, the

general colour-scheme being black upper and bright rufous under parts,

with clear silver-grey crowns. C. verticalis differs from albicapilla

not only in size but in having a rufous hind-collar, which is absent in

the larger species, or in some examples just marked by a few rufous

feathers. Both are found in the same sort of haunts, bush near water,

particularly the patches of thick palm and other bush along the creeks

and round the cattle-wells on the landward borders of the swamps.

They are nearly always in pairs, one jiair in each suitable site, from which

they seem jealously to exclude any near relation.


These bush-encircled wells are definite bird-centres. They are

usually rather gloomy dark places, owing to the dense shade of the

surrounding trees, and this gloom is distinctly and frequently lighted

up by the quick movements and striking plumage of their most constant



