68


His lameness is that of all individuals of his famil}^ that

I have ever seen. Show him the tin containing mealworms and

open his cage door ! He positively darts to you, settles on your

arm, or on the edge of the box, and the mealworm held in your

fingers has disappeared before you have time to say "Jack

Robinson."


It is aggravating that hen birds should so seldom be

imported, for, if I remember rightly, a brood was successfully

raised in IvOndon by Mr. Phillipps.


B}^ looking at the illustration, anyone unacquainted with

the colours of the male bird can easily picture them in the mind's

eye : his size being rather larger than the Robin ; the whole

head, throat and back a glossy blue-black with a splendid sheen

thereon, as in the plumage of a swallow; all the breast and

underparts a bright rich chestnut ; the wings dark brown, each

of the primaries edged with lighter brown ; the tail black in the

centre, the shorter and outside feathers being white, ••' whilst the

tail-covei'ts show conspicuously in a patch of snowj' whiteness ;

the bill is black ; the legs and feet flesh -colour ; and the e5^es are

large and full like a Robin's, and of deepest brown. The whole

of the outline of the bird is extremely graceful, much of which

grace is given by the length of the tail.


A Shama should never be kept in a small cage, and cane

or wooden bars are the best, care being taken that the perches

are placed so that the tail wdll not be rubbed or broken ; but it is

a bird which will preserve its plumage well from one autumn to

another, and its feathers do not seem to have the brittleness of

many of our English Warblers, such as the Nightingale and the

Blackcap.


A Shama fed upon some reliable insectivorous food, as

sold by men like Mr. Abrahams and Mr. Cross, will prosper ; but

fresh chopped raw beef, mealworms, fruit in season, and insects

should be given in addition to the food ordinarih^ placed freshly

each morning in the food- trough ; and don't forget a big bath.


The Shama {Cittocinda tricolor) is a resident in India ; a

jungle bird, I believe ; where his beautiful voice must be a great

addition to the haunts of Peafowl and to jungle-life in general.

There the Shamas nest between April and June. Other species

of the same family are to be found in the Malay Peninsula,

the Andaman Islands and the Philippines.


* None of the tail-feathers of Cittocinda tricoloi- SlVC wholly white, even the outer having

each a black base. If the outer tail-feathers of Mr. Astley's bird are wholly white, it is

not C. tricolor but C. suavis. — R.P.



