146 _ THE BIRDS OF ETHIOPIAN AFRICA 



north-eastern Africa takes its name from its massive beak. On the Gold 

 Coast is found the wagtail-crow (Picathartes gymnocephahis), a slaty grey bird 

 about the size of a jackdaw, with a bare yellow patch on the face. The throat 

 is scantily covered with white down, but the white under-parts are more closely 

 feathered, while the wings and tail are dark brown. The Senegambian taper-tailed 

 magpie (Cryptorkina afra), which, like the preceding, is the sole representative of 

 its genus, may be recognised by the long beak, pointed wings, and graduated tail 

 formed of ten feathers. In colour it is glossy black shading to dark brown on the 

 wing-coverts and tail. 



Nearly allied to the crows are the spectacled shrikes, which form a purely 

 African group distinguished by the fleshy wattle round the eyes, the stiff frontal 

 feathers overhanging the nostrils, and the long straight beak. The black-headed 

 species (Prionopis poliocephalus) is an East African bird, black and white in colour, 

 with a grey neck and ear-patches. The snake-shrikes (Eurycephalus), characterised 

 by their short, notched beaks, form a group restricted to East and South Africa ; 

 while their relatives the magpie- shrikes (Urolestes) have a somewhat wider range. 

 They are distinguished by their graduated tails with the two middle feathers 

 greatly elongated, the lanceolate feathers on the crown and neck, and the long, 

 fluffy plumage of the flanks. The typical II. rnelanoleucus takes its name from 

 the black plumage tipped with white on the shoulders and wings. 



To the flycatcher group, Muscicapidce, belong the pied woolly snappers 

 (Platystira), comprising very small birds with thick, soft plumage, a flap of skin 

 round each eye, and the beak surrounded by bristles. Closely allied are the grey 

 snappers, as represented by the typical South African Stenostira scita, and certain 

 allied genera. In these birds the plumage is of somewhat the same type as in 

 the last, but the beak is narrower ; most of the species are African, although one 

 inhabits Madagascar. 



In concluding this necessarily brief notice of the Ethiopian perching-birds it 

 may be mentioned, as a curious fact in distribution, that the Angola pitta (Pitta 

 angolensis), of the west coast, is the sole African representative of a group other- 

 wise restricted to tropical Asia, Australia, and America. 



Among the so-called picarian birds, the nightjars are especially 

 well represented in Ethiopian Africa, one of the most remarkable being 

 the pennant-winged nightj ar (Macrodipteryx[Cosmetomis] vexillarius), distinguished 

 by the great length of the seventh, eighth, and especially the ninth primary quills of 

 the wing, which are white, and appear to attain their extreme development only 

 from October to January, and then solely in the males. On account of these 

 encumbrances, the cocks have a much slower flight than the hens, which are so 

 swift as to be difficult to follow with the naked eye. The species ranges from the 

 Niger delta to the Zambesi and Damaraland. In the second nightjar of the same 

 genus, M. longipennis, inhabiting Abyssinia and the west coast between the 

 Senegal and the Niger, the elongation is confined to the ninth primary quills in 

 which the shafts are long and bare, terminating in short, spatula-like vanes. When 

 the birds are sitting on the ground, these standard-like feathers are frequently held 

 vertically ; while in flight they communicate a most remarkable appearance to 

 their owners. 



