APPENDIX 331 



Wood-Shrikes 



Helmet-Slirikes — Sigmodus. Characterised by tufted heads and 

 wattles around the eye ; woodland birds of soft floppy 

 flight, recalling that of the Siberian Jay. This, again, is a 

 purely African genus of half-a-dozen species (p. 252). 



Drongos — Dicrurijs, of which the fork-tailed species, D. musicvs, 

 is figured and described at p. 18.^ 

 In spite of the abundance of Shrikes, I never chanced to 



notice their " shanables " in East Africa. 



Tits (Paridce) 



These also form a numerous group, fourteen species being 

 recognised as peculiar to the African Continent — thereby break- 

 ing through the rigid bounds of " Ethiopia " in zoological 

 geography. 



Tits noticed in the forests of the Mau were dark in colour — 

 almost black. This Ave attributed to their gloomy environment 

 — almost a twilight at midday. But those sombre colours 

 appear to be more or less characteristic of other African 

 Paridx not restricted to dense forest. 



SUNBIRDS 



This is a thoroughly tropical — or rather, Ethiopian — group, 

 comprising 80 to 100 species, many of which are typical of 

 British East Africa. Bedecked in gorgeous hues — crimson and 

 purples, greens and scarlet, blues, gold and yellow, each feather 

 of which has a metallic lustre — these tiny creatures glance like 

 jewels in the sunshine as they dart from flower to flower, alight- 

 ing for an instant to pick off insects and aphides with curved, 

 creeper-like bills. One perches above a bloom, bending forward 

 to a perpendicular position to explore the calyx beneath ; while 

 another hangs, back downwards, like a tit, below its selected 

 flower. 



Towards the end of July, when the brilliancy of some blooms 



^ Mr. Ogilvie-Grant tells me that Dicrurus should properly have been 

 placed next to Lamprocolius &t p. 335. 



