298 MR. E. NEWTON ON THE BIRDS OF ANJUAN. _ [Mar. 20, 
whose habits I was able to study, having had five or six brought to 
me alive; but I only managed to keep them for a few days. They 
are very pugnacious, attacking crows and hawks, and even beating 
them off. They sing very sweetly and softly, and seem to be able 
to imitate other birds. They live on grasshoppers. On presenting 
a large grasshopper at the wires of the cage it is immediately 
seized by the beak; the bird then grasps it with its foot, and 
settles on the perch. Then at once the bird makes a jump in the 
air, and alights with one of the springing legs of the creature free 
from its grasp ; this it tears off, and then repeats the same move- 
ment, tearing off the other leg; then, still holding the wings grasped 
to the body, the bird pulls off the head and swallows it. Afterwards 
it tears off the wings one by one, making a jump round off the perch, 
and freeing one wing from its grasp in each jump, as it did with the 
legs before described. The body is then well masticated, and 
swallowed whole. They generally ate two large locusts at a time. 
They were not common.” Native name ‘‘ Maremondou.” 
These specimens differ somewhat from those of Madagascar in 
having more robust beaks and the crest on the head more full; but 
the differences are so slight that I do not feel justified in describing 
them as belonging to a distinct species. It is to be remarked that 
the collection does not contain a specimen of D. waldeni, which 
was found at Mayotte by MM. Pollen and Van Dam; and the de- 
scription which these gentlemen give of the habits of this species is 
so unlike what has been described of the habits of other birds of this 
genus, and so like those of the allied genus Tchitrea, that I am al- 
most led to suppose that they must have really described a bird more 
nearly resembling Tchitrea corvina of the Seychelles. 
11. TcHITREA VULPINA, sp. noy. (Plate XXXIII. fig. 2.) 
T. mutate (in vestitu rubido) admodum similis, sed colore pallidi- 
ore et magis aurantiaco, maculd alari latiore, et caudd breviore 
et concolori diversa. 
Long. tota 11, ala 3:1, caude 7°7, acrotarsi *7, dig. med. sine 
ungue °4, hallucis sine ungue *3, maxille a fronte ‘75, mandibule 
ab articulo 1°2 poll. Anyl. 
Six specimens, four male and two female. ‘A beautiful bird, 
not common; tail of male much longer than that of female; nest 
and eggs sent.”” Native name ‘‘ Mouchtata.” 
These birds differ considerably from Tchitrea mutata of Madagas- 
ear and 7’. pretiosa of Mayotte. Though they were obtained in the 
height of the breeding-season, there is no trace among them of the 
black-and-white form which occurs so frequently in the adult Mada- 
gascar species, and the elongated tail-feathers of the male birds are 
of a uniform cinnamon-colour, and not black and white as they 
always are in their relations. The cinnamon-colour also is much 
lighter, the elongated tail-feathers and the wings much shorter than 
in the Madagascar species; the white on the wings is much more 
conspicuous, and the edging to the primaries and secondaries more 
pronounced. ‘Taking these differences into consideration, I have but 
little hesitation in describing the Anjuan bird as a new species. The 
