55GITHALUS 311 



Description. Adult male. Above, greyish-olive merging into 

 yellowish-olive on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; wings and tail 

 light brown ; crown rather greyer than the back ; the feathers of 

 forehead and lores black tipped with white ; a slight eyebrow, a 

 ring round the eye and the sides of face dull white, the ear-coverts 

 slightly darker ; chin and under tail and wing- coverts dull white ; 

 remaining under surface of body pale yellowish. 



Iris yellowish-brown ; bill, legs and feet brown. 



Length 3'60 ; wing 2'00 ; tail 1-60 ; tarsus O55 ; culmen 0-40. 



Adult female. Slightly smaller in size and duller in colour. 



Length 3-30; wing 1-90; tail 1-45. 



Young. Eesernble the female. 



Distribution. Very generally distributed in Cape Colony, but 

 most abundant on the west coast, becoming rarer towards the 

 Orange Eiver ; it ranges over the greater portion of the Orange 

 Free State and the Transvaal but is somewhat locally distributed 

 in Natal and Zululand. To the north of the Orange Eiver it occurs 

 in Griqualand West, in Southern Bechuanaland and in Great 

 Namaqua Land, but in Damara Land, in Northern Bechuanaland 

 and in Ehodesia it is replaced by the next species, JE. caroli. 



Habits. The little " Cappoc Vogel " is to be met with in pairs 

 or small family parties in almost every district within its range in 

 which there is a sufficient growth of bushes to afford it a supply of 

 insect food and a shelter for its nest. It is quite abundant among 

 the " scrub " on the sandy west coast of Cape Colony and is 

 equally common among the low bushes and mimosas of the Karroo, 

 but I have never met with it in the forest districts. It is an active 

 little bird, constantly in motion, climbing over and carefully 

 examining the twigs and leaves of bushes for small insects and 

 their eggs. Its ordinary call-note is a weak and almost inaudible 

 " chirp," but occasionally as it takes wing it utters a sharper cry. 

 Its flight is weak and seldom protracted for any great distance 

 but usually only from bush to bush. If one of a party flies off it 

 is followed by the others in an irregular string. Towards the end 

 of August, in Cape Colony, these Tits separate in pairs and soon 

 after commence building their elaborately woven nests. A some- 

 what open bush is usually chosen as a site after a careful inspection 

 lasting several days. In sheep-farming districts wool is nearly 

 always used as a building material, elsewhere the cottony down of 

 plants ; but whatever the substance made use of, it is carefully 

 woven and felted together in several distinct layers until the walls 



