212 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
194. CRATEROPUS JARDINII. Jardine’s Babbling-Thrush. 
The expedition under Sir Andrew Smith first obtained this bird 
in lat. 25° 24’ S. We have received a few specimens from 
Kuruman, and Dr. Exton found it common throughout the 
Bechuana and Matabili countries. Mr. Ayres has forwarded a 
specimen from Natal and writes as follows :—‘‘I found these birds 
inhabiting the bush near the Tugela: there was a family of eight or 
nine together, but I only succeeded in getting the specimen sent. 
They have aloud chattering note, and a rather heavy flight; the 
stomach of the bird sent contained caterpillars. I have never met 
with them on the coast, and believe they are entirely confined to 
the upper districts; they are, however, also found on the river 
Limpopo.” It also occurs in the Transvaal, where both Mr. T. E, 
Buckley and Mr. Ayres have obtained it. Mr. Buckley observes :— 
“The description of the habits of C. bicolor will answer equally for 
this species. I took a nest of this bird on the banks of the Limpopo, 
on the 23rd of November. It contained but one egg; but the 
parent bird was close to the nest, which was about the size of a 
Blackbird’s, deep and coarsely lined, and placed in a small but very 
thorny tree. The eggs were of a blue colour, like a Thrush’s, 
without spots.” It does not occur apparently in the Zambesi 
district, but is here replaced by the closely allied Crateropus kirkii. 
Mr. Andersson procured some individuals of this species on the 
Cunene river, on the 25th June, 1867, and Senor Anchieta has 
obtained it at Huilla in Mossamedes. Sir Andrew Smith gives the © 
following account of its habits :—‘ The first specimens of this bird — 
were obtained in latitude 25° 24’ S., and, as we have reason to 
believe, upon the extreme limit of its southern range. Where the — 
species was first discovered, only a few specimens were observed ; 
but, by the time we had reached a degree more to the northward, 
they occurred in great abundance. Spots covered with reeds, such 
as are seen along the margins of many of the rivers of the country _ 
they inhabit, appeared to form their favourite feeding places; and © 
though when disturbed, they would leave those for a time, and take 
up their abode among the brushwood with which the banks of the 
stream were more or less covered, they invariably returned to the 
haunts they had left when the cause which had led them to remove 
hhad ceased to exist. While lodged among the reeds they were 
) 
| 
| 
. 
| 
; 
¢ 
: 
: 
; 
5 
) 
