THE SINGING BIRDS. 



:ig 



inches long and eleven broad, the wing three inches and a quarter, and the tail three inches in length. 

 It is of a deep greyish brown on the back and top of the head. The head and throat are blackish 

 brown, the breast and beliy whitish grey ; the eye is brown, the beak and feet black. Both sexes 

 are alike in colour. 



LE VAILLANT'S GREY BIRD. 

 Le Vaillant's Grey Bird (Pyownotus Vaillantii) is a very similar but larger species, met with 

 in Arabia and the Cape of Good Hope. The body of this bird, which we have named after the 

 celebrated traveller Le Vaillant, is of a somewhat lighter grey, and the under side of the wing and 

 rump of a beautiful sulphur-yellow. It has been asserted that a third member of diis group has 

 been seen in Spain, but all our attempts to discover it have proved unavailing. Africa and Southern 

 Asia must unquestionably be regarded as forming the almost exclusive habitat of the Grey Birds, from 





THE GREY BIRD (Pyciionotus arsino'e). 



whence they but very rarely wander as far as Europe, or even Arabia. They are first met with in any 

 considerable numbers at about twenty-five degrees north latitude. In the north of Nubia they are to 

 be seen on every mimosa hedge, and in Eastern Soudan are more commonly met with than almost 

 any other bird; in the latter country they alike frequent forests and gardens, mountains or plains, but 

 usually seem to prefer such spots as afford a shelter from the sun ; for this reason they are constantly 

 found under the leafy branches of the sycamores that abound on the banks of the Lower Nile. 

 Towards man they exhibit no fear, but trustingly take up their abode close to the huts of the natives, 

 Their temperament is cheerful and restless, and their movements upon the ground and among the 

 branches sprightly and active. Their flight, on the contrary, is by no means elegant, and usually 

 consists of a kind of hovering, fluttering motion. From early morning till late in the evening their 

 loud, clear, and often beautiful voices are to be heard almost incessantly, as they hop busily to and 

 fro, gleaning caterpillars or insects from the leaves, pausing ever and anon to expand or elevate the 

 long feathers that decorate the back of the head, and, with body erect, to cast a keen investigating 

 glance on the surrounding buds and blossoms. Whilst the mimosa is in bloom, they are constantly 



