40 STUENID^E LAMPROCOLIUS 



in East Bamangwato, by Mr. Andersson in Damara Land, and by 

 S. Anchieta in Mossamedes and Angola. 



Habits. In its babits this race does not differ from tbe larger 

 L. phoenicopterus. Mr. Andersson remarks : " Tbis bird is found 

 most abundantly throughout Damara and Great Namaqua Land, 

 in the valleys of the Okavango and of the Teoughe, and in the 

 Lake regions. Like our European Starling, which it very much 

 resembles in manners and habits, it frequently congregates in large 

 flocks; it is comparatively tame and easy to approach, and is often 

 met with near villages. Its fopd is very various, consisting of 

 berries, seeds, and insects, and it is very destructive to fruit gardens; 

 its flesh is not unpalatable. This species forms its nest in the 

 hollows of trees, lining the cavity well with feathers. The eggs are 

 four in number, of a long oval shape, but tapering much more at 

 one end than at the other ; they are of a pale bluish-green, spotted 

 all over with small dots of light brown." 



Mr. T. Ay res writes, that in Natal " these birds are generally 

 to be found from three to a dozen together, sometimes more, 

 excepting in the spring, when they pair off. They build in holes in 

 the trunks of trees, generally at a good height from the ground. 

 I have known a pair of these birds take possession of a Woodpecker's 

 nest, destroying the eggs, and laying their own instead, which the 

 Woodpeckers seemed to submit to rather tamely. They feed almost 

 entirely on fruits and berries, and are destructive to our mulberries 

 and other small fruits. They sometimes hop about and feed on the 

 ground, somewhat like the Thrush and Blackbird in England." 



16. Lamprocolius chloropterus. Green-winged Glossy Starling. 



Lamprotornis chloropterus, Swains. An. in Menag. p. 359 (1837). 

 Lamprocolius chloropterus, Bp. Cousp. i, p. 416 (1850) ; Heugl. Orn. 



N. O.-Afr. ii, p. 512 (1870) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M~. xiii, p. 178 (1890) ; 



Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 43 (1896). 



Description. Adult male. Above, upper back and scapulars 

 glossy steel-green ; lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts steel- 

 blue glossed with green ; wing-coverts like the back, with a sub- 

 terminal spot of black on the middle and greater coverts ; on the 

 bend of wing a patch of bluish-purple formed by the inner lesser- 

 coverts ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts and quills black, externally 

 steel-green, the secondaries with a terminal black spot ; tail violet 



