BATIS CAPENSIS. 3847 
hard set eggs on the 20th November, 1868. The nest is just like 
that of Tchitrea; cup shaped, built of grass-bents and fibres, lined 
with horse-hair, and stuck all over with lichens so thickly as to 
be entirely covered. The eggs are of a dull white tinted with 
green, more or less spotted with pale brown dots and surrounded 
at the obtuse end by a very broad band of close-set brown and 
brown-purple blotches. Axis 9’’’, diam. 63’’’,. Both Andersson 
and Victorin procured it at the Knysna, and it is included in 
Mr. Rickard’s East London list. It has been procured both by 
ourselves and by Mr. T. C. Atmore in the neighbourhood of 
Graham’s Town. We have also seen numerous specimens from 
Natal, and Mr, F. A. Barratt procured it on the stony coppices 
on the sides of the hills at Macamac, where he observed them 
flitting about among the stunted brushwood. 
Adult male.—Entire head deep ashy grey, with a black line 
drawn from the forehead on each side, inclosing the eye and ear- 
coverts, and extending down on each side of the neck so as to 
form a border to the grey head; the rest of the back* olive-brown, 
the rump irregularly mottled with white, which shows more 
conspicuously on the disarrangement of the feathers ; upper 
tail-coverts glossy greenish-black, with a white tip; least wing- 
coverts olive-brown like the back, the greater ones darker, the 
median and the inner greater coverts bright orange-rufous; quills 
dark brown, the inner secondaries tipped with white, the outer 
secondaries broadly edged with orange-rufous, continuous with the 
coverts, which are similarly coloured ; tail black, with a very slight 
greenish gloss, the feathers more or less broadly tipped with white, 
the outer feathers margined externally with a broad white line; 
entire throat and sides of neck pure white; fore part of chest black, 
forming a very broad pectoral band, slightly tinged on the side 
with olive-brown, some of the lower feathers slightly margined with 
white; centre of belly and under tail-coverts white; sides of body 
bright orange-rufous; tibial plumes blackish; under wing-coverts 
white, the outermost small coyerts brown; bill and feet black ; iris 
yellow. Total length 3°9 inches; culmen, 0°5; wing, 2:2; tail, 
1°65 ; tarsus, 0°65. 
Adult female.—Forehead and eyebrow whitish, but otherwise 
very similar to the male on the upper parts. Underneath white with 
a patch of orange-rufous occupying nearly the whole of the throat ; 
