SHRIKES 97 



streaked Bush-shrike (T. australis). It is also a lover 

 of bush country and was recorded by Erikson as breed- 

 ing on the Limpopo River in December and near Lake 

 Ngami in March. A nest taken on New Year's day, 

 1906, on the bank of the Crocodile River, three or four 

 miles north of Hartebeest Poort in the Pretoria District, 

 was a very neat little saucer of rootlets, and contained 

 three eggs of a pure white, prettily marked with reddish - 

 brown spots. 



We next have the Puff-backed Shrikes (Dryoscopus) 

 the first representative of which is the true Puff-back 

 (D. cubla), the male being well known for the beautiful 

 powder-puff-like patch of downy feathers on the back, 

 which the bird can erect at will. In Natal it is some- 

 times called the " Snowball Shrike." 



It builds a cup-shaped nest of rootlets and fibres, 

 the outside being composed of strips of the palm-like 

 leaves of a Dracena, thickly matted with spider webs, 

 and is always built round the fork or branch on 

 which it is placed. The eggs three in number are 

 pinkish-white, thickly speckled on the obtuse ends with 

 small dots of deep pinkish-brown. It is fairly common 

 in the forest and bush regions from Knysna to the 

 Zambesi Valley, and across to Damaraland and Southern 

 Benguela. 



The Greater Puff-back (D. ferrugineus) differs from 

 the first-mentioned species in its larger size, huffish 

 underparts and orange-buff tinge on the rump. Its eggs 

 are pale blue, thickly speckled with reddish-brown. 



The two remaining species are but little known. 



The last genus of the sub- family is a large one com- 

 prising some ten species of Laniarius, the first of which 



7 



