Annoying Birds. 67 



through the thorns, then he must take another's shoes 

 and be quick. We had no mercy, nor had the com- 

 panions of the malingerer. They laughed like children 

 when an excuse was silenced. 



As is always the case, or at all events wherever I 

 have collected, certain birds, and generally the common 

 ones, interfere with the collecting of others. We were 

 much annoyed by a species of babbler* of about the 

 size of a blackbird, and of a light brown colour, but with 

 a white head, which was lucky for us, as it made them 

 conspicuous and thus easier to avoid. They were common 

 where the trees and bushes grew thick, and were always 

 in small companies. When we were unfortunate enough 

 to come suddenly upon one of these companies the 

 babblers seemed to go mad whether with rage or terror 

 I never could determine, and assailed us with an in- 

 cessant stream of the hoarsest alarm-notes. This noise, 

 for it can be called nothing else, was made up of a 

 number of " churrs " so rapidly repeated that the whole 

 sounded like a policeman's rattle turned with feverish 

 anxiety. Moreover, the birds performed in company, 

 sitting side by side on a bough and often touching one 

 another. Were you so unwise as to try and drive them 



* Crateropus leucocephalus (Cretzschm). 



