COLIUS 



to form a loose crest ; wings and tail ashy-brown, not vermiculated ; 

 below, the throat, upper breast and sides of the body ashy-brown, 

 strongly vermiculated with darker, the lower breast, under wing- 

 and tail-coverts ochreous, darkest on the coverts ; lining of the 

 quills and lower side of the tail-feathers chestnut-buff. In some 

 specimens the forehead and chin are dark, almost black, perhaps 

 due to staining with fruit. 



Iris dark brown, bare skin round the eye black ; bill, upper 

 mandible black, lower, bluish-brown ; legs and feet purplish-brown. 



Length 13'0 to 14-0 ; wing 3-70 ; tail 8-0 to 8-5 ; culmen 0-5 ; 

 tarsus 0'9. 



The sexes are alike. In the South African Museum are a 

 curious pair of semi-albinos in which the crest, a few feathers 

 on the back, the tail and the lower parts from the breast down- 

 wards are pure white, the rest of the bird being normally coloured ; 

 they were shot near Goudini in the Worcester division of the 

 Colony. 



Distribution. This Mouse-bird is found throughout the greater 

 part of South Africa from Cape Town (where, however, it is less 

 common than the other two species) to the Zambesi ; so far as I am 

 aware it has not been noticed in the western Transvaal, Bechuanaland, 

 Ehodesia, and German south-west Africa, but this may be through 

 lack of observation. North of the Zambesi this bird has been 

 hitherto only obtained in Nyasaland. The following are the 

 principal localities : Cape Colony Cape, Stellenbosch, Tulbagh, 

 Worcester, Caledon, Knysna and Middelburg divisions (S. A. Mus.), 

 Griquatown (B. Hamilton), Port Elizabeth and East London 

 (Eickards), King Williams Town (Brit. Mus.), Port St. John 

 (Shortridge) ; Natal Durban and Pinetown (Shelley), Escourt 

 (Reid), Ulundi and Eshowe (Woodward) ; Transvaal Swaziland 

 (Buckley), Barberton (Kendall), and Macamac in Lydenburg 

 (Barratt) ; Portuguese east Africa Tete and below on the Zambesi 

 (Alexander). 



Habits. The habits of all Mouse-birds are very similar; they 

 are to be seen almost invariably in small parties of from six to twelve 

 individuals ; even when the females are incubating the males keep 

 together. They affect thick bush where they climb like tits, crawl- 

 ing about and placing themselves in all sorts of different attitudes ; 

 in doing this the whole of the tarsus is often applied to the branch 

 acting like the sole of a foot and is often much rubbed in conse- 

 quence. When alarmed they fly off one after another with short 



