by Mi\ Claude Grant in South Africa. 715 



size and by the blacker chin and throat. The series col- 

 lected by Grant shew some variation in size, though a by 

 no means constant one, but the character of the black chin 

 is fairly noticeable and may suffice. 



[" Muis-vogel'^ or "Mouse-bird" of the Colonists; 

 ''Nhlazi^'of the Zulus. 



This is the common Coly of most localities that I 

 visited. I have met with it in the Cape Peninsula, the 

 Knysna district, Zululand and Natal, the South-Eastern, 

 Eastern, and North-Eastern Transvaal, and the Inhambane, 

 Beira, Gorongoza, and Tete districts of Portuguese East 

 Africa. It was found to be more plentiful farther north, 

 and was especially common in the Inhambane district. It is 

 gregarious in habit, and was often found in flocks of twenty 

 or more individuals feeding on fruit and berries. It does 

 considerable damage iu orchards and gardens. 



It gets its name of " Mouse-bird '^ from the quaint way 

 in which it clambers among the branches and its habit of 

 getting into thick bushes and remaining quiet, much as 

 mice will do. The cry is a whistle, uttered generally when 

 on the wing or on being disturbed, and is apparently both 

 call- and alarm-note. The flight is low, straight, and rapid, 

 often with a few rapid beats of the wing and a long glide, 

 the birds, as a rule^ diving into the middle of the bushes 

 before settling. 



The soft parts are : — Iiides brown ; bill, upper mandible 

 dark slate, lower light slate ; legs and toes dark crimson.] 



424. COLIUS CAPENSIS. 



CC. Table Mt. slopes, Feb. (1) ; Durban R{\., Mch., 

 Sept. (2) ; Port Nolloth, Aug. (2) ; Klipfontcin, May (1). 



I can see no difference in colour between the Cape Penin- 

 sula and Namaqualand birds, so that the latter shew no 

 approach to C. c. damarensis Reiclnv. 



[■^^ Muis-vogel" or '^ Mouse-bird '' of the Colonists. 



I have only observed this Mouse-bird iu the Cape Peninsula 

 and Namaqualand, and it was common in both localities. 

 In habits it resembles C. striatus, l)eing, like that species, 

 gregarious and generally seen in flocks of perhaps a dozen 



