478 PRIONOPS POLIOCEPHALA 
Mr. T. Ayres writes: “ These birds are sparingly found 
in small companies through the wooded parts of the Rusten- 
burg district. They are extremely wild.” Mr. T. KE. Buckley 
records them as common from Pretoria into the Matabele 
country, and by no means shy there. Mr. Guy Marshall 
writes from Mashonaland: “This bird is always found in 
small flocks of four or six in the bush. These always keep 
together, sitting on low bushes or low down on the trunks of 
trees. They seem to feed chiefly on caterpillars. Their note 
is a sort of chatter like ‘ishqwe,’ repeated quickly four or five 
times.” Mr. J. L. Sowerby also writes: “Common in the 
bush-veld both in Nyasaland and Matabele. Keeps in small 
parties of a dozen or so, which fly low and steadily just out 
of one’s way.” At Tete, on the Zambesi, Sir John Kirk 
remarks: ‘Native name, ‘ Menya-menya,’ from the sound it 
makes as if two pieces of bone were struck together.” On 
the same river Mr. Alexander writes of the species: “ Not 
numerous, fond of thick places, travelling in perfect silence in 
small parties through the monotonous woods of Copaifera 
mopane, where they are almost the only birds to be seen. 
Sometimes they are pursued by Drongo Shrikes, which despoil 
them of their prey. They have an airy flight which gives one 
the idea that they are made of paper.” 
Claude Grant collected a good series of the southern 
Prionops in the Ntambana Hills in Zululand and at various 
localities northwards through the eastern Transvaal to Tete. 
All his examples were obtained in the winter months (April to 
September). He believed at first that they were migratory ; 
other collectors, however, have obtained the species in the 
summer months, and though undoubtedly migratory to a 
certain extent, they are probably subject to local movements 
only. It is remarkable, however, that the nest and eggs have 
never been found south of the Zambesi. 
