162 CAPITONID^ TRICHOLJEMA 



The following are the chief recorded localities : Cape Colony- 

 Cape, Malmesbury, and Clanwilliam (S. A. Mus.), Beaufort West, 

 Colesberg, and Hopetown (Layard), Middelburg (S. A. Mus.), 

 Orange river at Prieska (Burchell), at Upington (Bradshaw in 

 S. A. Mus.), and near Aliwal North (Whitehead), Kuruman (Layard), 

 Swellendam (Layard), Oudtshoorn (Victorin), Albany (Layard), and 

 Port Elizabeth (Ivy); Zululand Umlalas river (Woodward); 

 Orange Eiver Colony Kroonstad (Sowerby) ; Vredefort Eoad (B. 

 Hamilton) ; Transvaal Swaziland (Buckley in Bt. Mus.), Barberton 

 (Eendall), Pretoria (Buckley), Kustenburg (Ayres) ; Bechuanaland 

 Ngami region (Andersson) ; Rhodesia Tati river (Gates) ; 

 German south-west Africa northern Great Namaqualaud to the 

 Okavango (Andersson). 



Habits. This bird is found as a rule among the mimosa bushes 

 which line the watercourses throughout South Africa ; here, singly 

 or more rarely in pairs, it sits and gives forth its loud-ringing and 

 far-sounding, characteristic note, which would hardly be credited 

 to so small a bird. The cry which is usually heard in early morn- 

 ing is something like "poo-poo-poop" in three syllables constantly 

 repeated. Much energy appears to be required for this effort, and 

 while it is going on the body of the little bird is violently jerked up 

 and down. Like other Barbets, the main portion of its diet consists 

 of fruits, but it will also eat other things, such as insects and seeds, 

 if necessary ; in confinement, it has been known to eat bread and 

 meat. When feeding on fruit it often suspends itself below the 

 branch like a tit or a mousebird, and makes its meal hanging in 

 this position. Layard found these birds breeding on a farm in the 

 Albany division in a hole in the stem of an aloe excavated by 

 themselves, and described their eggs as white, elongated, and some- 

 what rough, measuring about 0-92 x 0-60. Ivy found a breeding 

 place at Walmer, near Port Elizabeth, in November. It was a hole 

 about 1| inches in diameter in an old tree trunk ; the passage was 

 inwards about two inches, and then downwards about six. At the 

 bottom were four white eggs resting merely on some fragments 

 of rotten wood. 



451. Tricholsema affinis. Shelley's Barbel. 



Pogonorhynchus affinis, Shelley, P. Z. S. 1879, p. 680; Sharpe, cd. 



Layard's B. 8. Afr. i, p. 811 (1884). 

 Tricholsema affine, Shelley, Cat. B. M. xix, p. 31, pi. ii, fig. 2 (1891) ; 



id. B. Afr. i, p. 127 (1896). 



