164 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
place it is common. It has also been found in Natal by Mr. 
Ayres. He writes: “This bird frequents the dense bush, and 
principally lives amongst impenetrable creepers, where it hunts about 
in search of the insects which it feeds upon ; if disturbed, it flies but 
a short distance. The note is a loud, melancholy, cooing noise; 
they call most in wet weather ; they are fond of getting up into trees 
that are covered with creeping plants, and sunning themselves; 
they generally fly on to the lower part, and gradually hop upwards till 
they gain the top, but they can fly a very short distance at a time, 
and are easily caught if chased ont into the open grass, though they 
lie very close, and it requires a good dog to find them; if disturbed — 
they immediately fly to the thickest cover at hand, and commence 
running like the Rails. They feed on grasshoppers, caterpillars, and — 
other insects.” Mr. Rickard narrates that in the stomach of one he 
killed he found a Zosterops, in that of another a small snake, locusts, 
and caterpillars. 
Captain Shelley observes: “This is the common Centropus 
about Durban. I shot a few specimens ; but they were in such bad 
plumage, both in March and April, that I did not preserve them.” 
Mr. T. E. Buckley shot a male in the Transvaal on the 5th July, 
1873, and says that its habits did not differ from those of C. senegal- 
ensis. Mr, Andersson does not appear to have procured it im 
Damara Land, but Senor Anchieta has found it on the Coroca and 
Chimba Rivers, as well as at Capangombe in Mossamedes. Mr. Sala 
sent several specimens from Kattenbella in Benguela, and according | . 
to Mr. Monteiro it is abundant everywhere in Angola ; 
Adult.—Head and hind neck blackish or brownish black, andl 
feathers under the eye and ear-coverts also black ; over the eye a 
broad stripe of yellowish white; all the feathers of the hind head 
and neck distinctly streaked down the centre with yellowish white ; 
centre of back and scapulars dull rufous brown, all the feathers 
mesially streaked with whitish, these stripes being further bordered 
with blackish on each side, causing them to stand out in bolder . 
relief; wings dull rufous above and below, the quills tipped with ~ 
dusky, the inner secondaries inclining to olive-brown, the least wing- | 
coverts streaked with whitish, like the scapulars ; lower back dusky , 
black, transversely barred with dull ochre; upper tail-coverts and 
tail greenish black, with somewhat of an oily-green gloss, the latter . 
narrowly tipped with white, the upper tail-coverts barred with dusky | 
ho 
