VI PSITTACI 361 
a favourite haunt, but they are not uncommonly seen amongst 
the tangled creepers below, flitting from shrub to shrub with 
undulating flight when disturbed, and alighting with crest erect 
and up-turned tail. Of some species the flight is clumsy and 
jerky, of others light and graceful; at times they hover in the 
air with outspread wings and tail, at times they sport and hop 
among the branches, expanding and depressing the rectrices. 
Familiar yet extremely shy and _ restless, these birds, when 
wounded, are particularly hard to secure, as they run with great 
swiftness, and even take refuge in holes in trees. During rain 
or in the mid-day heat they rest quietly on some bough, but at 
other times are usually noisy, their harsh reiterated screaming 
or ringing notes being varied by a cat-like mewing or dove-like 
sound. The food consists of bananas, tamarinds, papaw-apples, 
and other fruits, with insects, worms, caterpillars, molluscs, or 
even smmall birds. They are occasionally mobbed by their kin, 
as Cuckoos are. Though some species have been asserted to 
breed in holes, Sehizorhis concolor makes a flat nest in trees, and 
Gymnoschizorhis leopoldi a loose platform of thorny twigs and 
roots, both species laying three round greenish- or bluish-white 
eggs. The flesh is considered a delicacy by the natives. 
Turacus (Corythaix) fischeri of Kast Africa is green, washed with 
blue on the wings and tail, having a crimson crest tipped with black, 
a crimson hind neck with white nape, a blackish lower chest and 
abdomen, and black cheeks margined above and below with white ; 
the remiges are crimson, edged with black, the bare orbits red. 
T. corythaiz is called the Lory in South Africa.  Jusophaga 
violacea of West Africa is glossy violet-blue with darker tail, the 
crown and hind-neck being covered with short, hairy, crimson 
feathers and partially outlined with white; the chest is greenish, 
the frontal plate yellow; the wing-quills and orbits are as in 
T. fischert.  Schizorhis concolor of South Africa is nearly 
uniform ash-coloured; Gymnoschizorhis personata of Shoa is 
greyish-brown with paler crest, whitish head and neck, blackish 
naked cheeks and throat, and dirty green breast. 
The remarkable fossil Necrornis occurs in the Middle Miocene 
of France. 
Of all existing Birds the Parrots (Sub-Order Psrrract) are 
perhaps the most interesting to the public, being easily procurable, 
