VI 



PSITTACI 361 



a favourite haunt, but they are not uncommonly seen amongst 

 the tangled creepers below, flitting from shrub to shrub with 

 undulating flight when disturbed, and alighting with crest erect 

 and up-turned tail. Of some species the flight is clumsy and 

 jerky, of others light and graceful ; at times they hover in the 

 air with outspread wings and tail, at times they sport and hop 

 among the branches, expanding and depressing the rectrices. 

 Familiar yet extremely shy and restless, these birds, when 

 wounded, are particularly hard to secure, as they run with great 

 swiftness, and even take refuge in holes in trees. During rain 

 or in the mid-day heat they rest quietly on some bough, but at 

 other times are usually noisy, their harsh reiterated screaming 

 or ringing notes being varied by a cat-like mewing or dove-like 

 sound. The food consists of bananas, tamarinds, papaw-apples, 

 and other fruits, with insects, worms, caterpillars, molluscs, or 

 even small birds. They are occasionally mobbed by their kin, 

 as Cuckoos are. Though some species have been asserted to 

 breed in holes, Schizorhis concolor makes a fiat nest in trees, and 

 Gymnoschizorhis leopoldi a loose platform of thorny twigs and 

 roots, both species laying three round greenish- or bluish-white 

 eggs. The flesh is considered a delicacy by the natives. 



Turacus {Corythaix) fischeri of East Africa is green, washed with 

 blue on the wings and tail, having a crimson crest tipped with black, 

 a crimson hind neck with white nape, a blackish lower chest and 

 abdomen, and black cheeks margined above and below with white ; 

 the remiges are crimson, edged with black, the bare orbits red. 

 T. corythaix is called the Lory in South Africa. Muso-pliaga 

 violacea of West Africa is glossy violet-blue with darker tail, the 

 crown and hind-neck being covered with short, hairy, crimson 

 feathers and partially outlined with white ; the chest is greenish, 

 the frontal plate yellow ; the wing-quills and orbits are as in 

 T. fischeri. Schizorhis concolor of South Africa is nearly 

 uniform ash-coloured ; Gymnoschizorhis personata of Shoa is 

 greyish-brown with paler crest, whitish head and neck, blackish 

 naked cheeks and throat, and dirty green breast. 



The remarkable fossil Necrornis occurs in the Middle Miocene 

 of France. 



Of all existing Birds the Parrots (Sub-Order Psittaci) are 

 perhaps the most interesting to the public, being easily procurable, 



