282 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
the following note on the species in Natal :—“These birds are 
generally seen in the thick bush, creeping about the stems and 
boughs of trees and shrubs in search of small insects on which they 
live; they are generally solitary, or in pairs, and very silent; their 
flight is weak. They build a very delicate nest; it is hung to a 
few fine twigs, in rather a horizontal position ; the outer layer is 
composed of mosses, lichens, cobwebs, and very fine pieces of grass, 
lined with thistledown ; the nest is deep and open at the top, and is 
somewhat the shape of those built by some of the Sun-birds; the 
eggs are elliptical in form, bluish-white, spotted pretty equally with 
brownish red, some of the spots being fainter than others.” Our 
friend Mr. T. A. Barratt writes :—“I have never seen this species 
elsewhere than at Macamac and Pilgrim’s Rest Gold-fields.” 
Le Vaillant found this bird in abundance after crossing the 
“River of Elephants” as far as the tropics; also on the bank of the 
Orange River, and in Kafirland. He states that they always went 
in couples, male and female, breeding in November and December. 
The nest is placed among grass or low bushes; the eggs are six 
in number, and of a reddish white. The male has an agreeable 
song. 
Mr. L. C. Layard discovered the nest at Grootevadersbosch ; he 
says it is domed and of the same shape as those of the Drymece. 
The eggs are white, spotted with various sized dark brownish-red 
spots chiefly at the obtuse end, and somewhat in the form of a ring. 
Axis, 7}'’’ ; diam., 6”. 
General colour above ashy-grey, tinted with olive-green, except 
on the tail; chin, throat, and under parts whitish, tinted with rufous- 
brown, deepest on the vent; a black collar extends across the chest, 
and a black mark from the bill to the eye; tail graduated, the 
outermost feather nearly all white, the second white at the tip, the 
third at the tip only ; two tufts of black hair-like feathers, from 
the basal half of the back of the head; eye light-yellow; tarsus 
flesh-coloured; claws brown; bill black. Length, 5” 3’’’; wing, 
2”; tail, 2” 4’/’, 
Fig. Le Vaill. Ois. d’Afr. pl. 123. 
267. MertocicHLA PYRRHOPS. Congo Warbler. 
Senor Anchieta has procured an example of this West African 
bird at Caconda in Boenguela. It is recorded by Professor Barboza 
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