2 PICARAs 
Basipterygoid proceses absent. 
Czeca absent. 
Ambiens muscle absent. 
Sternum with four notches, forming deep clefts in the posterior margin. 
Feet pamprodactylous, all four toes being directed forwards, but the first (hallux) rever- 
sible (see fig. ta-5a). Flexor longus hallucis fused with the flexor perforans digitorum. 
Spinal tract with a saddle-shaped space. 
Rectrices ten, much graduated (see fig. 2). 
Oil-gland tufted. 
Sexes alike. 
Bibliography. Murie, The Ibis, 1872. — Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1876. — Sharpe, Cat. Birds 
Brit. Mus. Vol. 17 (1892). — Sharpe, Hand-List, Vol. 2, p. 14 (1900). — Reichenow, Végel Afr. 
Vol. 2 (1902). — W. L. Sclater, Birds of Afr. Vol. 3 (1903). — Dubois, Syn. Avium. p. go: 
(1902). — Shelley, The Ibis, 1885, pp. 307-319. 
Range. The Colies, as already stated, are entirely confined to the A¢thiopian Region 
exclusive of Arabia and Madagascar, and are sparingly distributed over nearly the whole of it 
(with the exceptions above-mentioned) except in the utterly desert and densely wooded dis- 
tricts; where they appear to absent. They range from the Lower White Nile where two species 
occur (C. leucotis and C. macrurus) down to the Cape Peninsula where three species are found 
(C. capensis, C. erythromelon and C. striatus). 
Habits and Reproduction. The Colies or « Mouse-birds », as they are often called, are 
almost invariably met with in small flocks of from six to twelve individuals. Even while the 
females are incubating the males are said to remain together. They resort mostly to thick 
bushes, in which they climb like Tits (Parws), crawling about and placing themselves in all 
sorts of different attitudes. When alarmed they fly off one after another with a short direct flight, 
compared by Le Vaillant to an arrow shot from a bow, and assemble again in a neighbouring 
bush or tree. 
The Colies teed mostly on fruits and berries and in many places frequent the suburban 
gardens as soon as the figs and loquats are ripe, but they also eat young shoots of plants and 
insects. The nests are open cup-shaped structures, placed at some height on a tree or shrub, 
and formed of small sticks, bark and wild cotton, in the case of some species lined with green 
leaves. The eggs are chalky white, but often become more or less stained. The clutch is from 
3 to 7 innumber. There are eggs of five species of Colies in the British Museum which are des- 
cribed in the Catalogue of Eggs, Vol. 3, p. 95 as « typically of a regular oval shape, the shell 
» being somewhat rough to the touch and quite devoid of all gloss. » 
Remarks on the Species. The Colies, as is now acknowledged by all our leading autho- 
rities, form but one single genus Colius, the terms Urocolius and Rhabdocolius, invented by 
Bonaparte for C. macrurus and C. striatus respectively, being of no scientific value whatever. 
The structure of these birds is so nearly uniform throughout that the species may be most 
conveniently arranged by their plumage, and fall primarily into two sections, those with no 
cross-striations on the feathers, and those with cross-striations. These sections I propose to 
call « Colii simpliciplumes » and « Colii striatiplumes » and to arrange the eight species which I 
recognize as valid under these two heads, as follows. 
