A ce EO Ss 
LANIUS COLLARIS. 375 
and we have seen the spikes of an aloe—a favourite resort of these 
birds—garnished with snakes, locusts, small birds, hard-cased 
beetles, crabs, lizards, and sometimes even a fish. We have been 
assured on good authority that they seize gold-fish out of the 
fountains. It builds in trees and bushes, and constructs a nest of 
grass, lined with fibres and hair. Eggs, four or five; of a pale grey 
colour, blotched at the obtuse end, in the form of a ring, with 
greenish and reddish spots; axis, 12” ; diam., 9”. 
Mr. Guillemard says that the Fiskal Shrike may be said to be 
tolerably common throughout the whole of South Africa, wherever 
it can find a tree to perch on. Both Victorin and Andersson 
procured it at the Knysna, and Mr. Rickard records it both from 
Port Elizabeth and East London. We are indebted to Lieut. H. 
Trevelyan for specimens from Kingwilliamstown, and Mr. F. A. 
Barratt says that he has noticed the species plentifully in British 
Kaffraria, as well as in the neighbourhood of Bloemfontein in the 
Orange Free State. Captain Shelley says that it is not rare in 
Natal, and that he met with it frequently near Durban and 
Pinetown. Mr. Buckley obtaimed a specimen in the Transvaal, 
and Mr. F. A. Barratt mentions his having seen it on the Rhinoster 
River, a few miles south of the Vaal, and he has also shot it near 
Potchefstroom. Mr. T. Ayres writes:—‘ This Shrike is about as 
plentiful in the Lydenburg district as in most other parts of the 
country, a single one or a pair may often be seen frequenting some 
particular portion of ground.” Senor Anchieta has met with the 
species at Ambaca and Caconda in Benguela, and Quillengues near 
14° §. Lat., as well as at Humbe, on the Cunene River; it is 
common everywhere. Its native name at Biballa is “ Kitiapi,” at 
Humbe “ Kissanda-suala.”’ This last name has been given from its 
custom of searching for insects among the heaps of dried leaves on 
the ground. 
«“ This Shrike,” writes Mr. Andersson, “is common in the southern 
and middle parts of Great Namaqua Land, but further north it is 
replaced by Lanius subcoronatus ; indeed, where the one species 
ceases, the other may be said to begin, as, to the best of my belief, 
L. collaris does not exist in any numbers where L. subcoronatus is 
found. South of Namaqua Land the Fiskal Shrike is very abundant, 
and nowhere more so than in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, 
where a pair may be seen in almost every garden. It is a bold, 
