228 OXYNOTUS RUFIVENTER 
and “Physicienne” a figure and description of a female ex- 
ample from Mauritius to which island the species is confined. 
Unfortunately they confused this bird with the Boubou Shrike 
(Laniarius ferrugineus) of the Cape, and the earliest available 
name is that of Swainson. 
Most of our knowledge of this species is derived from some 
notes of Sir Edward Newton communicated to M. E. Pollen, 
and published in the Ibis for 1866. He states as follows :— 
“The Oxynotus of Mauritius or ‘ Cuisinier’ as it is, for 
what reason I do not know, called, begins to build towards 
the end of October or beginning of November. Two of the 
three nests that I have found were placed in small trees not 
more than 20 ft. high, and of a sort of mop-like growth, the 
nest being nearly in the centre of the ‘mop’ and almost out 
of sight from below, on account of the small thickly growing 
leaves. One tree was a ‘ Bois-balai, Hrythroxylum hyperi- 
cifolium), the other is ‘ Bois de pomme’ (Lyzygium glomera- 
tum). One of the nests, which is now before me and contained 
two eges when I took it, is flat, shallow and very small for the 
size of the bird (whose head and tail projected considerably 
on either side), being 4°5 inches in external and 3:0 inches in 
internal diameter. The height of its walls is nowhere more 
than 2°5 inches. It is composed of long fern-roots and 
tendrils of some plant, studded on the outside with a common 
white and black lichen, and well secured by spider’s web 
woven over its outer surface. The eggs measure about 1°07 
inch in length, by about 0°74 inch in breadth. They are of a 
very pale sea-green, thickly marked with ash-coloured spots 
of a middle size, and blotched, especially about the larger 
circumference, at the obtuse end of the egg, with patches 
of olive-brown; these latter markings, though of irregular 
shape and size, having a general longitudinal tendency. 
“The ‘ Cuisinier’ is found, I believe, in every part of the 
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