JAY-THRUSHES. 



45 



is like the cawing of a Crow, or like a human being 

 shouting " Hurrah ! " and he congratulates his readers 

 on the fact that the bird has been studied in captivity. 

 Fortunately some notes on the wild life have been pub- 

 lished in The Ibis. 



Colonel Charles Bingham, in a paper on " Birds of the 

 Southern Shan States" (The Ibis, 1903, p. 587) says : 

 " I never found this bird common, though it occurs over a 

 wide range, and at elevations from 500 feet to 5,000 

 feet " ; and E. C. Stuart Baker observers (The Ibis, 1906, 

 p. 89) that " Capt. Harrington has taken the. nest of 

 this bird in the Shan States. He thus records the dis- 

 covery : 'At Ganguni (5,000 feet) on the 1st of May 

 I found a nest of this bird placed in a small tree about 

 nine feet up. I was unable to shoot the bird, as it sat 

 for some time on the edge of the nest just above my 

 head, and then got away. The nest was exactly like 

 that of the next species' (D. sannio); 'three eggs, 

 measuring 1.04in. by .79in., glossy white.'" Unfortu- 

 nately we are not told what the nest of D. sannio is like. 



Speaking of the Babblers, Mr. Frank Finn (The Ibis, 

 1901, p. 428) observes : " Most esteemed, perhaps, is the 

 Chinese Jay-Thrush (Dryonastes chinensis), which is 

 only known' here" (Calcutta) "as an imported bird, and 

 under its Chinese name of Peko. It is a very fine 

 songster, and an excellent mimic. A few arrive from 

 time to time, and find a ready sale. I know of a very 

 good specimen which is at least fourteen years old, and 

 certainly shows no signs of age." 



Mr. R. W. G. Frith noticed that his specimen of this 

 bird had a habit, like the Crows, of sticking any bits 

 of chopped meat which were given to it between the 

 bars of its cage. If a bee or wasp was offered to it, this 

 was instantaneously seized, the tail was thrown forward 

 and the insect rubbed backwards and forwards between 

 the feathers, as if to clean it, before it was killed. It 

 would place a large beetle on the ground and kill and 

 break it up with a quick, powerful blow of the bill. 

 With a small snake it always manoeuvred so as to hit 

 ii: on the centre of the head, then it devoured the same 

 about half at a time piecemeal, holding its prey under its 

 foot, and 'hacking off pieces with its bill, according to its 

 usual method of feeding (quoted by Russ from Blyth). 



Dr. Russ fills several pages with accounts of this 

 bird's song, its tameness in captivity, and its joy in 

 recognising another example of its species after a long 

 term of solitary life. He "says that the first example to 

 reach Germany went to the Berlin Aquarium. The 

 following is perhaps worth recording: "Mr. Peter 

 Frank of Liverpool remarks that a friend of his in the 

 South of England had made an attempt to breed with 

 a pair of Jay-Thrushes. Moreover, these birds killed 

 and devoured little fish, but he could never make sure 

 whether they brushed an insect or other prey with 

 their tail-feathers. The pair actually started to breed ; 

 yet the birds always broke up their c<wn eggs. 

 Although in the moist approved manner they were pro- 

 vided in the ma.tter of food, for the most part a.live, 

 snails, little fish, blight, mealworms, etc., they did not 

 discontinue this unnatural behaviour, and consequently 

 were unable to breed successfully." 



This is n well-known species in our Zoological Gardens, 

 and has been in the possession of not a few private 

 aviculturi>'. s. 



MASKED JAY-THRFSH (Dryonastis perspicillatus}. 



Front of head to above eye, side.s of head including 

 rheeks and ear-coverts black ; remainder of upper sur- 

 face dull greyish-brown ; wings somewhat darker ; the 

 flights with greyish margins to the outer webs; tail- 

 feathers black-brown ; the two central ones and the 

 basal half of the others clear brown ; body below brown- 



ish-white ; the abdomen and under tail-coverts bright 

 yellowish rust-red ; bill black-brown ; feet brownish 

 flesh-coloured ; iris dark brown. The female is rather 

 smajller and has a shorter bill. Hab., South China- 

 According to Pere David, it is a resident species and is 

 abundant in the vicinity of human dwellings and on 

 fields in the plains which are dotted over with groups 

 of trees, scrub, and bamboo-jungle, but never in dense 

 woods. It seeks its food on the ground, along the 

 hedges which enclose fields and under the bamboos : 

 this consists principally of insects, as well as all kinds 

 of fruits and seeds ; moreover it pursues small bi^ds in 

 order to kill and eat them. Its screaming, unpleasing 

 song is continually to be heard. 



Mr. F. W. Ryan, in a paper on the birds of the lower 

 Yangtse Basin (The Ibis, 1891, p. 334) says: "A 

 common resident, frequenting thick cover and" bamboo- 

 copses on the plains." 



Messrs. La Touche and Rickett " on the nesting of 



Birds in Fohkien " (The Ibis, 1906, p. 28) say. " We 



have taken but four nests o.f this common resident. 

 There are two, or perhaps three, broods in the season, 

 as we have taken eggs as late as July llth. 



" A nest found on May 9th was placed in a large 

 thorny bush eight or ten feet from the ground. It was 

 composed of hard wiry tendrils, within which was a 

 layer of dead leaves, and then a layer of straw, that 

 showed conspicuously all round the edge, giving the 

 nest the curious appearance of having a straw binding. 

 The lining was of pine-needles. Another nest, built in 

 a small tree, was composed of coarse grass, roots, and 

 a few small twigs, lined with fine dry grass. 



" The nests are 6in. or Tin. in external diameter, 4in. 

 in internal diameter. In depth they are 4in. externally 

 and 2in. to Sin. internally. 



"Eight eggs average l.lOin. by .85in. ; they are- 

 delicate greenish white in colour and, as a rule, very 

 glossy, but the texture is uneven ; in shape they are 

 more or less oval. There are three or four eggs in a 

 clutch." 



In his ' : Field-Notes on the Birds of Chekiang " (The 

 Ibis, 1906, pp. 438-9), Mr. J. D. D. La, Touche says: 

 "Abundant and resident. It breeds in the bamboo- 

 copses round about the villages and also in the reed- 

 beds. The nests which I have seen in the former were- 

 all placed on bamboos at a considerable height from the 

 ground twelve feet at least. Two half-torn-down and 

 deserted nests fb'und on June 10th in a patch of reeds 

 were about five feet from the ground ; one contained 

 three slightly incubated eggs, the other was empty. 

 Fresh eggs were brought to me on June 21st, July llth, 

 and July 13th, so that no doubt two broods are reared 

 here. The Chinkiang nests which I have seen resemble 

 tho'^e taken at Foochow, but ten eggs taken at Chin- 

 kiang are much larger than Foochow eggs. They 

 average 1.14in. by 0.86in. The largest is 1.20in. by 

 0.86in., the shortest l.OTin. by 0.85m." 



Dr. Russ observes that this Jay-Thrush is one of the 

 moat infrequent to- appear in the European bird-market 

 and only comes- extremely rarely to the large Zoological 

 Gardens (London Gardens, 1878) ; nevertheless in the 

 year 1884 it was advertised several times by English 

 dealers in the Gefitde.rte Welt. 



COLLARED JAY-THRTTSH (Garrulax picticollis). 

 Upper surface grey-brown washed with cinnamon, 

 bat indistinctly ; the innermost secondaries and centra] 

 tail-feathers indistinctly transversely barred ; back of 

 neck strongly washed with golden cinnamon, diffused ; 

 outer secondaries and primaries with black inner webs, 

 the primaries with their outer webs becoming 

 increasingly white outwardly, the outermost being 



