Dr. E. Ilopkinson—The White-crowned Chat-thrush 179

C. signata, Sundev., South-East Africa.


All accounts show them to be good singers, and also, at any rate as

regards some species, mockers as well. C. bicolor, Dr. Stark says, has


“ a loud and powerful voice, and besides some sweet notes of its

own imitates the cries of various other birds, such as the Emerald

Cuckoo, Red-winged Shrike, Goatsucker, Buzzard, Sea-Eagle, and

even the call of the Tree-frog ”.


As regards C. natalensis, he quotes (p. 211) Mr. A. D. Millar, as

follows: —


“ This Chat-Robin . . . like other members of its genus, is

a perfect mocking bird in the neighbourhood of his haunt. Many a

collector has rushed frantically on hearing what he believed to be the

Emerald Cuckoo, only to find, on approaching the spot, that it was

one of these Chat-Robins.


“ They nest in the hollow of a stump or tree . . . laying three

eggs varying in shades of colour from olive-green to rich dark

brown.”


The same writer in his account of the next species, C. heuglini,

quotes Capt. Boyd Alexander, who writes


“ In the Zambesi region this species commences to breed towards

the end of December ; the male bird is then in full song, but at other

times of the year the song is reduced to a short string of babbling

notes. The song is rich and mellow, the long-drawn-out notes

increasing in volume, suddenly to break off into a string of bubbling

sounds that turn the next moment to soft volubility, the voice

being raised in pitch till it becomes a faint whisper, just as if the

singer were soliloquizing.


“ This Cossypha frequents thick undergrowth, waste lands,

where there are bush-grown dells holding water or reed beds

bordering the river. It is a shy bird, and keeps much to the bottom

of the tangled brushwood, decoying the listener on with occasional

snatches of song, but never allowing him to come to close quarters.

The female has no song.”


A more recent observer, Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton, more than con¬

firms all the delightful qualities of this species, writing in an account

of the Birds of Gazaland (Ibis, 1908, p. 84), as follows : —


“ It is by far our finest local songster, and to my mind not one

of our boasted English song-birds, hardly the Nightingale, is to be

classed with it for a moment. It begins to sing just after the first

streak of dawn appears, and continues to do so for little more than

half an hour, ceasing before sunrise in order to commence the day’s

business. During the remainder of the day it remains comparatively



