404 TELOPHORUS ZEYLONUS 
call and answer, the head being thrown up, the beak pointed 
skywards and the mouth wide open. The note of the male 
varies somewhat, but can be best expressed as follows: “ bac- 
ba-kiri, bac-ba-kiri,” and the female follows with—‘ cow-it, 
cow-it.”” Away from human habitations these birds appear to 
be shy and retiring, frequenting thick bush, and being found 
generally near the ground, but in the gardens and suburban 
districts round Cape Town, they are exceedingly conspicuous 
and noticeable. 
The food consists of worms, caterpillars and insects, which 
they obtain on or near the ground; their powers of flight are 
not very great, owing to the comparative shortness of the 
wings, but they run very well and quickly. 
The nest is generally placed in a low bush and is made of 
grass, lined usually with down, sometimes only with finer 
grass; the eggs, four to five in number, are bright verditer blue, 
spotted chiefly at the thicker end with rusty red. They 
measure about 1°0 x 0°78. Both male and female take part 
in incubation. 
The British Museum contains the examples from the 
following localities :— 
Cape Colony—Cape Town (Butler, Shelley), Ceres and 
Wellington (Shelley), Mossel Bay (Oates), Elands Post 
(Atmore), Deelfontein (Grant and Seimund), Klipfontein, 
Port Nolloth, Plettenberg Bay (Grant); Natal—Durban 
(Gordge), Newcastle (Butler); Orange River Colony—Kroon- 
stad (Symonds); T’ransvaal—Potchefstroom (Ayres), Wakker- 
stroom (Grant); German S.W. Africa—Walfisch Bay and 
Hykamkop (Andersson) ; Angola—Cuio Bay (Monteiro). 
| - 
