o?i a Private Collectio?i of Living Birds. 169


refuse to eat, so that his owner need fear no breakdown of

the commissariat. Unfortunately, his enquiring disposition and

omnivorous appetite render this bird a dangerous companion for

smaller birds, whose thin skulls would stand little chance against

the hammerlike strokes of his closed bill. The Jay Thrush may,

however, be safely allowed in a mixed aviary, provided that it

contain no weaker birds for him to bully ; this aviary may with

advantage have an outdoor compartment, for so robust an inmate

requires no coddling, and visitors to the Amsterdam Zoological

Gardens may recollect the fine example of Garrulax si?ie?isis

which was thriving out of doors during the past (so-called)

summer. The Chinese Jay Thrush has of late years been

frequently imported into this country, and well deserves the

attention of amateurs, to whom it appears to be practically

unknown.* f


Lamprotomis caudatus (Long-tailed Glossy Starling).


The Eulabetidce, or Glossy Starlings, are pre-eminent

amongst the feathered tribe in the incomparable beauty of their

plumage, the lovely metallic hues of which recall the splen¬

dours of their near relations, the Birds of Paradise. There are

several species of Long-tailed Starling: the individual I now

possess has golden-yellow eyes, and much of the plumage is

magnificent rich violet, resembling the glorious hues seen on the

wings of the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise (Seleucides 7 iigricans).

Long-tailed Starlings are remarkably Corvine in gait and manner,

and much resemble Magpies both in their demeanour and in their

odd partiality for glittering objects, whilst the likeness is in¬

creased by their long tails. These Starlings soon become tame :

my own bird will fly down to take grapes or mealworms from the

hand, but it is capricious at times, for if not very hungry he will

not accept a grape unless bit by bit; should a whole grape be

offered by his dutiful owner the bird takes it in a blase sort of

way, holds it in his beak for a moment, and then contemptuously



* I have had four specimens and found them to vary greatty. One was a superb

whistler.—R. P.


t I think Dr. Renshaw is mistaken in this assumption : the bird was tolerably

well-known when I first began to take up aviculture (some twenty-one years ago). The

name is not a good one ; as the Collared Jay-Thrush, a rarer bird undoubtedly, is also

a Chinese species.—A. G. B.



