426 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
places it was procured by Mr. Frank Oates, who also fell in with it 
on the Mariko River. Mr. Andersson observes: “This bird is 
found most abundantly throughout Damara and Great Namaqua 
Land, in the valleys of the Okavango and of the Teoughe, and in 
the Lake regions. Like our European Starling, which it very much 
resembles in manners and habits, it frequently congregates in large 
flocks ; it is comparatively tame and easy to approach, and is often 
met with near villages. Its food is very various, consisting of 
berries, seeds, and insects, and it is very destructive to fruit-gardens ; 
its flesh is not unpalatable. This species forms its nest in the 
hollows of trees, lining the cavity well with feathers. The eggs are 
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four in number, of a long oval shape, but tapering much more at ; 
one end than at the other ; they are of a pale bluish-green, spotted ; 
all over with small dots of light brown. 
Professor Barboza du Bocage is of opinion that the species from j 
Damara Land and Benguela is distinct from the ordinary LD. pheni- 
copterus and should be recognized as L. bispecularis of Strickland 
and Sclater. We may not have seen the species intended by 
Bocage, but, as far as our own observations go, we think Mr. Gurney 
is right in considering the Damara birds to be the same as the 
ordinary Cape Glossy Starling. 
Mr. Monteiro procured it in Benguela, and says it is common all 
over Angola. The L. decoratus of Hartlaub we believe to be the 
same as L. phenicopterus, and Juida awrata of our first edition 
(p. 171) is also the same bird. 
Sea-green, glossed with blue on the head, rump, tail, and thighs, 
and with violet on the ears; shoulder covers greenish-blue, margined 
by a flame-coloured and violet band; inner webs of the primaries 
with a central notch. Length, 9” 6” ; wing, 5” 4”; tail, 4” 2". 
Mr. Andersson gives the soft parts as follows:—“The iris is 
bright reddish-orange, the bill, legs, and toes more or less black.” ; 
Fig. le Vaill. Ois. d’Afr. pl. 89. } 
407. Lamprocotius syconius, Peters. Peters’ Glossy Starling. 
Although very closely allied to L. phenicopterus the present 
species differs in being a much smaller bird and in having the colour 
of the head of a brilliant metallic oily-green colour, almost coppery 
in hue, and in wanting the steel-blue gloss on the nape and crown. 
Mr. Ayres, too, who procured it in the Mashoona country during 
