18 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS 
if the aviary be large enough, will be found easy to keep 
and the most picturesque and interesting that could be 
found. But none of these birds are suited for small 
aviaries. 
Only one of the large Babblers has much repute as a 
songster, and this may almost always be procured in 
Calcutta. 
THe Prexo or Cuinese Mockine-Birp (Dryonastes 
Chinensis) is figured on Plate III, as mentioned on page 15. 
This bird is a really fine musician, having singularly 
pure and plaintive tones; it is also an admirable mimic, 
and, when tame enough, delights in being caressed. It 
will live many years in a cage, and is the most easily 
kept of all the non-seed-eating cage-birds. At the same 
time it always seems to me a pity not to give this lively 
and sociable bird the happier life that an aviary affords. 
It is chiefly known in India as a foreign bird, being 
imported from China, but it is found in South Pegu 
and Tenasserim. 
Few of the Babblers are as large as most of those I 
have been describing. 
THE BLAcK-HEADED S1BiA (Lioptila capistrata) is, al- 
though nearly nine inches long, a slight, graceful crea- 
ture ; it is figured on Plate IV (Fig. 5). It is a very com- 
mon bird in the hills up to 8,000 feet, being particularly 
numerous about Darjeeling. It comes to the ground 
less than most Babblers, and is fairly strong on the wing ; 
indeed, it is, all round, a most remarkably active bird, 
and so dexterous that I have seen it turn nght round its 
perch without letting go. 
