BIRDS. 43 



called lierc the bush-pheasant, who flies as if it 

 were too much trouble to use his wings, and 

 who will sit on a low bush and stare at me, 

 letting me get quite close to him before he flies 

 away, to a brown-aud-red mite (an Estrelda) 

 even smaller than the blue waxbills, which are 

 constantly hopping about so close to the house 

 that I am always fearing my kitten will catch 

 the poor little darlings. Bigodas, of course, 

 inhabit my bush ; also some slender greyish- 

 browii birds with black crests and a dash of 

 yellow near the tail, who sing very sweetly, and 

 two families of black and white shrikes (Lanius 

 coronatus] ; but these List I never can like, for 

 they have an unpleasant habit of impaling 

 beetles, grasshoppers, and even small birds alive 

 on the thorns of the hedge round my ground, 

 and there eating them at their leisure. Their 

 only redeeming point is that they sing very 

 sweetly for hours together quite close to the 

 house, but they also have a very harsh, dis- 

 cordant cry. The young birds especially make 

 a hideous noise, continuing to scream all the 



