93



Capt. Boyd Horsbkugh,



feet off, tumble out of it and go off, looking as if they had only

just learnt how to fly.


A bird that seemed to be quite as attractive as the well-

known Shamah of India was the Cape Robin ( Cossypha cajfra).

It was very familiar in the Colony, and I found a nest on a

drawing-room mantelpiece of a deserted house. The hen bird sat

on her eggs until I almost touched her. This species struck me

as being a near relation of the Shamah and the male is very

handsome.


I saw in the bush-veldt plenty of the large Black and

White South African Long-tailed Shrike ( Urolestes mela?ioleucus );

they always went in parties of six to eight, and sat on some

vantage ground like the top of a high tree, and answered each

other with a loud and penetrating note.


The lovely Natal Bush-Shrike (Laniarius auadricolor ) I

only saw once : it looked like a spot of flame in the tree and was

busily engaged in mobbing a Pearl-spotted Owl ( Glaucidium

per latum).


The Backbakiri {Laniarius gutturalis ), a very handsome

pale green bird with a yellow bib edged with black in the male,

was exceedingly common everywhere that there was a bit of

plantation, and their loud ringing call of five notes, two of which

are uttered by the male and three by the female, but so run into

one another that you could almost swear it is one bird, can be

heard at Cape Town and every station almost to Mafeking.


If a fire started in the grass among the bushes the

African Drongo usually turned up in force to have a good feed

off the unfortunate insects that were obliged to move ; they were

very often accompanied by the South African Roller.


Although the Wattled Starling (Dilophus carunailatus) was

said to be very numerous, I never met with it, but I believe it

only turns up in certain years. The Common Spreo (, Spreo

bicolor) which looks just like a Common Starling with white vest

and under-tail coverts is enormously common. It nests in holes

in banks and such like places and roosts out of the breeding

season, like our Starling, in reed-beds. The Cape Glossy

Starling (A my dr us morio) I found nesting in holes in a rocky



