FLYCATCHERS. 



59 



the breast and under tail-coverts; the thighs, sides of 

 body, and under wing-coverts green ; lower surface of 

 quills ashy, paler on the inner margins. Iris brown ; 

 bill black; legs and feet lead-colour." (W. L. Sclater.) 



Mr. Sclater says that the female resembles the male 

 in plumage ; but Dr. Gadow describes it as follows : 



" All the underparts are green ; the tail uniform olive- 

 green ; the head wanting the black loral and lateral 

 stripes, the black crescent being likewise absent ; 

 throat vermilion ; remainder of the underparts of the 

 body olive-yellow ; under tail-coverts dull yellow ;. sides 

 of breast and flanks green ; the black collar on the chest 

 of the male is represented merely by a few blackish 

 tips on some of the feathers ; bill and feet brown ; lower 

 mandible paler." He also describes the young plumage 

 in both sexes, so that it seems impossible that his 

 female can have been anything but an adult bird. Hab., 

 South-eastern Africa. 



An excellent figure of the male (Plate XI.) is given in 

 Sharpe's edition of Layard's " Birds of South Africa," 

 Iroin which I extract the following note by Mr. Thomas 

 Ayres : " These birds inhabit the dense bush along the 

 coast, never leaving it ; they creep about the under- 

 wood in search of their food, and are easily obtained 

 by those who can imitate their call, for they will imme- 

 diately answer, and come to the sportsman if within 

 hearing. On perceiving their mistake they make a 

 low churring noise, as they do also if they see a cat, 

 snake, panther, or other beast of prey." (p. 381.) 



In Stark and Sclater's " Birds of South Africa," 

 Vol. II., p. 36, are the following notes on the habits 

 from the pens of Messrs. Woodward and Millar: "It 

 does not sing, but its cheerful cry, ' kong-kong-koit,' is 

 one of the pleasantest of bush sounds. It is particularly 

 partial to dense thickets, where, when it is disturbed, it 

 makes a croaking noise, and it is difficult to shoot it 

 at such close quarters without destroying its plumage. 

 This Shrike feeds principally on insects, but the natives 

 tell us that it sometimes attacks and kills the small 

 Bush-Wrens, and that they have known them to eat 

 the flesh of birds caught in their snares." 



" They breed early in November, and although plenti- 

 ful, their nests are rarely found. They build a loosely- 

 constructed nest of twigs lined with dry leaf-stalks, 

 generally placed four or five feet from the ground, in a 

 thicket or among some dried twigs or sticks. 



" The clutch consists of two or three pretty white 

 eggs delicately marked with grey-brown streaks and 

 splashes, principally at the obtuse end, and measuring 

 about .83 by .58. 



" The nest being loosely put together, enables one to 

 see through it, and the eggs resembling light and shade 

 renders detection more difficult, which is probably the 

 reason they are not more frequently discovered. I have 

 hunted for hours before spotting the nest, and then 

 wondered how it was possible to have passed it over." 



Beautiful and highly desirable as this Shrike is, Dr. 

 Russ is only able to record one instance of its importa- 

 tion, the specimen having reached the London Zoological 

 Gardens in 1882, but with the increased interest taken 

 in aviculture it is hardly probable that such a state of 

 things can long continue. 



Why the Green Cochoa is placed among the Shrikes 

 in the Zoological Society's list I am unable to explain. 

 According to Hume and Gates it is a true Thrush ; its 

 nidification seems to have been imperfectly known when 

 the second edition of the "Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds" 

 was known. It is hardly likely ever to become a well- 

 known cage-bird, although the Zoological Society pur- 

 chased a specimen in April, 1884. 



The Waxwings are not very desirable cage-birds, on 

 account of their greed and the consequent necessity for 



providing them with a small aviary. The North. 

 American Cedar-bird is, moreover, so nearly related to- 

 the European Waxwing that it seems hardly worth while 

 to devote space to a description of it, more especially 

 now that the birds of the United States are so strictly 

 preserved and consequently rare in the market. 



FLYCATCHERS (Muscicapidce). 



Numerous as these birds are, they are not easy to 

 feed, and consequently are hardly ever imported ; but 

 one species which has reached us in recent years from 

 Australia is so entirely charming and has been so 

 thoroughly studied in captivity, that it would be a 

 positive sin to omit it. 



BLUE WRKN (Malurus cyaneus). 



Male in summer with the crown, ear -coverts and a 

 lunar-shaped mark on upper part of back light metallic 

 blue ; lores, line over eye, occiput, scapulars, back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts velvety-black ; throat and 

 chest bluish-black, bounded below by a band of velvety- 

 black ; tail deep blue, indistinctly barred with a deeper 

 hue and finely tipped with white ; wings brown ; under 

 surface buffis'h white ; flanks tinged with blue ; bilL 

 black; feet brown; irides blackish-brown. (Gould.) 



In winter the male Icses all its bright colouring and, 

 much more closely resembles the female. The latter is. 

 brown above, including wings ar.d tail ; the lores and a 

 circle enclosing the eye reddish-brown ; under surface 

 brownish white ; bill reddish brown ; feet flesh-brown. 

 Hab., "South Queensland (?), New South Wales, Vic- 

 toria, and South Australia." (Campbell.) 



Gould says that this species " gives preference to those 

 parts of the country which (are) thinly covered with low 

 scrubby brushwood, and especially in localities of this 

 description which are situated near the borders of rivers 

 and ravines. During the months of winter it associates. 

 in small troops of from six to eight in number (probably 

 the brood of a single pair), which continually traverse- 

 the district in which they were bred. At this period of 

 the year the adult males throw off their fine livery, ana 

 the plumage of the sexes then becomes so nearly alike 

 that a minute examination is requisite to distinguish 

 them. Tine old males have the bill black at all seasons,, 

 whereas the young males during the first year, and the 

 females, have this organ always brown ; the tail-feathers- 

 also, which with the primaries are only moulted onoe a 

 year, are of a deeper blue in the old male. As spring 

 advances, the small troops separate into pairs, and the 

 males undergo a total transformation, not only in their 

 colour, but in the texture of their plumage; indeed, a 

 more astonishing change can scarcely be imagined. This, 

 change is not confined to the plumage alone, but extends, 

 also to the habits of the bird ; for it now displays great 

 vivacity, proudly shows off its gorgeous attire to the 

 utmost advantage, and pours out its animated song un- 

 ceasingly, until the female has completed her task of 

 incubatiion, and the craving appetites of its newly- 

 hatched young have called forth a new feeling and 

 given its energies a new direction. 



" During the winter months no bird can be more 

 tame and familiar; for it frequents the gardens and 

 shrubberies of the settlers, and hops about their houses 

 as if desirous to court, rather than shun, the presence 

 of man; but when adorned with its summer plumage, 

 the male becomes more shy and retiring, appearing to 

 have an instinctive consciousness of the danger to which 

 his beauty subjects him ; nevertheless they will fre- 

 quently build their little nest and rear their young in- 

 the most populous places. Several broods are reared 

 annually in the Botanic Garden at Sydney, and I saw a 



