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A Fine Collection from South Africa



The Grey-headed Bush-Shrike, Malaconotus poliocephalus, is

another handsome bird, green above and yellow below, and distinctly

larger than the Barbary. They are more tree-birds than the other

Gambian species, and have a long-drawn sweet but rather monotonous

whistle.


I mention these two birds as desiderata, but really, if included at

all, their mention should have been higher up with the other “ possibles”,

for so far they are certainly nothing more.


I find two other entries of “ Shrikes ”. The first, A.M., 1903, is an

account by Mr. Farrar of a pair of Pied Shrikes, and the second an

advertisement of a “ Greater Blue Shrike ”, mentioned in B.N., 1910,

p. 122. The “ Pied Shrikes ”, I presume, were Cracticus ; what was the

“ Blue Shrike ” ? A Great Grey Shrike ?


In conclusion I must just refer to other families of more or less

Shrike-like birds, which are known as cage-birds.


The Swallow-Shrikes, Artamidce. Two or more species used at times

to be imported.


The Crow-Shrikes, Gymnorhince. The best known of these are the

“ Piping Crows ”.


The Cuckoo-Shrikes, Campephagidcs , of two genera of which I know

single examples have reached England and perhaps there have been

more. These are Graucalus, as mentioned above, and Pericrocotus, the

Minivets. These are rare cage-birds in the East, but Mr. Ezra has kept

one at least in this country.



A FINE COLLECTION FROM SOUTH AFRICA


Perhaps the largest of all the’collections of birds that have arrived

from South Africa was recently received by Mr. Hamlyn, of St. George

Street, E. His collector, Mr. Grei, brought them home himself, and is to

be heartily congratulated upon the excellent condition in which the

stock arrived. To successfully look after eighty-four boxes of mammals

and birds during a voyage of some four weeks is no small undertaking,

and when the present writer viewed them the day after arrival their

condition left nothing to be desired. There were no less than eleven

hundred small birds, including five species of Sun-birds, two Wood



