432 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
Victorin notes the present species from the Karroo and the 
Knysna, and Mr. Rickard found it both at Port Elizabeth and East 
London. Mr. Ayres states that they are found in Natal, but not 
during the breeding season, and it extends into the Transvaal, 
where Mr. Ayres procured it in the Lydenburg district; and 
Mr. F. A. Barratt records its occurrence in the Orange Free State. 
Mr. Ayres gives the following note on the species in Natal :— 
“ Small fruits form their principal food, such as mulberries, of 
which they are very fond. Two of these birds perched on a tree, 
not long since, close to my house, one evidently a young one; the 
old bird, after swallowing a number of small berries, went to the 
younger and proceeded to feed it, by disgorging the berries one by 
one and giving them to the young, precisely as Pigeons do. Their 
note is a loud and rather prolonged whistle ; they are not seen here 
at all times of the year.” 
General colour, dark steel-blue; tail brownish; wings deep 
rufous, the large feathers more or less tipped with brown-black. 
Length, 13’ ; wing, 6” 3’’; tail, 6’. 
Fig. Le Vaill. Ois. d’Afr. pl. 173. 
Fam. PLOCEIDZ. 
415. Sycoprorus sicotor, Vieill. The Black-backed Weaver-Bird. 
Sycobius bicolor, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 183. 
This species is found in the eastern districts of the colony, the 
most westerly point reached by it being Van Stadden’s River, near 
Port Elizabeth, where we obtained it in March, 1870, in the wooded 
kloofs through which that river flows. Mr. Rickard tells us that he 
received several specimens from Kraggakamma, near Port Elizabeth. 
Proceeding eastward, we saw it sparingly near Grahamstown, the 
Kowie, Kat Berg, and Keish Kamma, and Dr. Atherston tells us 
that it is found all along the east coast. Captain Trevelyan has sent 
us several specimens from the neighbourhood of Kingwilliamstown, 
and states that it is not uncommon in the Peri bush. In Natal, 
Mr. Ayres found them frequenting the dense bush either singly or 
in pairs ; he writes :—“ Their notes are harsh and very unmusical, ~ 
their ordinary song resembling the squeaking of a wheel wanting 
grease. They are fond of climbing and hanging about thick 
creepers and the foliage of trees in search of insects, much as some 
of the Barbets do, which birds they seem to me somewhat to 
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