Dr. Hopkinson — Shrikes as Cage-hircls



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SHRIKES AS CAGE-BIRDS


By Dr. E. Hopkinson, D.S.O.


A recent advertisement, of Drongos and some South. African Shrikes

drew me to the “ Zoo ” at Damages, my first visit to this delightful

place, hut I hope not the last.


These particular birds were my main attraction, for I have kept

(or rather tried to keep) a few of them in West Africa, but the whole

place and all its occupants were a revelation to me. More or less cut

off from things birdy in recent years, I had no idea that such advances

in the bird-dealing line had been made nor that a “ bird-shop ”, even

at its highest (as here), could be such a delightful place, where birds

looked well, were kept well, and apparantly sold well.


The sight of these Shrikes determined me to try again with some

of the Gambian species if opportunity offers, and also led me to look

up what records I have at hand of the keeping of Shrikes in captivity.

These are chiefly back numbers of the Avicultuml Magazine and Bird

Notes, some of the more recent Zoo lists, and an occasional reference

elsewhere. The following is the result of my search, and although there

must be a few more records of other species obtained by our own or

other Zoos or by dealers, I think it must contain nearly all the Shrikes,

which so far have attained avicultural interest.


As regards the Drongos, which, however, are, of course, not true

Shrikes, I have occasionally seen an odd example of an Indian species

in captivity, but never before an African. Have any African Drongos

been ever imported before these birds at Gamages % They are, I presume,

either Dicrurus afer or ludwigi, but as their tails are broken one cannot

be sure whether they are the first, the Fork-tailed, or the second, the

Square-tailed Drongo.


Mr. Finn, in his article on the “ Cage-birds of Calcutta ” ( Ibis 1901),

mentions three species of Indian Drongo, but of these he says that only

one, the Bhimraj, Dissemums paradiseus, is at all commonly seen in

captivity. The only other record I find is another Asiatic species, the

Javan Drongo, Grgpsirhina varians, one of which appears in the

Zoo lists as “ new to the collection ” in 1907. I will now get on to the

true Shrikes, Laniidce.



