352 DRYOSCOPUS CUBLA 
From Gazaland Swynnerton writes at considerable length 
on the habits of this species. He states that it is found in 
thick bush or open wood, but not in thick forests. In the 
summer it is usually in pairs, in the winter in small flocks, 
which sometimes attach themselves to the Drongo regiment. 
It is a most diligent insect-hunter and examines most minutely 
the foliage of the larger trees in its search. The commonest 
note is a loud click followed by a clear whistle, but in the 
spring it acquires a somewhat extended range of song, the 
male with outstretched neck and head on one side singing 
“ Trr-trr-trr-trr-trr Trrk-who-wheeoo ! ” 
North of the Zambesi the Cubla is common throughout 
Nyasaland and has been collected by Whyte; it has been 
obtained by various German travellers in German East Africa; 
Béhm found it abundant in wooded districts during his journey 
from Zanzibar to the western shores of Tanganyika, and 
Sjéstedt found it common on the steppes and also on the 
slopes of Kilimanjaro up to about 5,500 feet. 
The Woodward brothers found a nest of this species in 
Natal. It was built in a low tree and was cup-shaped and 
neatly made of grass bound outside with cobweb; the eggs, 
three in number, are white, speckled with dark brown forming 
a ring at the larger end. Messrs. Haagner and Ivy give 
a somewhat similar account of a nest found near Grahams- 
town ; they write: “ Fairly common in the wooded kloofs. 
The nest is a neat cup-shaped structure of roots and fibres, 
the outside being usually composed of strips of the palm-like 
leaves of a Dracena, thickly matted with cobwebs, and 
always built round the fork or branch on which it is placed. 
The eggs are usually three in number and of a pinkish white 
ground colour, thickly spotted at the obtuse ends with small 
dots of deep pinkish brown.” 
The British Museum contains examples of this species 
from the following localities :— 
Dk 
