COEACIIDJE COEACIAS 51 



and on the Hanyani and Mazoe rivers by Marshall. North of the 

 Zambesi, its range extends to Caconda in Angola, and to Unyamwesi 

 in German east Africa. 



Habits. — Mr. Trimen, from information derived from Dr. 

 Bradshavf, states that the Eacquet-tailed EoUer is found chiefly 

 in a tract of heavy sandridges termed the zandveld, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Victoria falls, while Mr. Marshall found the species 

 very local and only among the heavier timber in the vicinity of the 

 rivers. In winter it goes in small flocks of ten or twelve, while 

 during the rains from November to March, it is scarcer and seldom 

 seen. Marshall gives the following account of it : " In some ways its 

 habits are notably different from those of its congeners. It is never 

 found sitting on the summits of trees at the outskirts of the bush, 

 but only on the lower branches further within ; it is comparatively 

 tame ; and its courting gambols are also distinct, for it will fly with 

 a very rapid zig-zag for some distance, and then suddenly shoot 

 straight up into the air for fifteen or twenty feet with closed wings, 

 curving gently over and down again head foremost, screaming all 

 the while. C. spatulatus is quite as quarrelsome as C. caudatus, 

 and even more noisy. I can only compare its cries to the yelping 

 of a litter of puppies. Stomachs contained grasshoppers, with 

 beetles and large fly-maggots evidently taken from carrion." 



403. Coracias mosambicus. Purple Boiler. 



Coracias pilosa {nee Lath.), Gurney, Ibis, 1868, p. 461 [Natal]; Holuh 



d P&heJn, Orn. Siid-Afrihas, p. 61 (1881). 

 Coracias nuchalis {nee Swains.) Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 60 (1867). 

 Coracias naevia, {nee Baud.) Sharpe, Ibis, 1871, p. 190 ; Ourney, in 



Andersson's B. Damaralcmd, p. 54 (1872) ; Buehley, Ibis, 1874, 



p. 363; Sha/rpe, ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. pp. 103, 805 (1875-84); 



Ayres, Ibis, 1879, p. 290 [Eustenburg] ; Oates, Matabeleland, p. 302 



(1881) ; Ayres, Ibis, 1882, p. 243 [Umfuli Eiver] ; 8ymonds, Ibis, 



1887, p. 327 [Kroonstad]. 

 Coracias mosambica, Dresser, Ibis, 1890, p. 385 ; id. Monogr. Corac. 



p. 43, pi. 11 (1893) ; 8heUey, B. Afr. i, p. 110 (1896) ; Alexander, 



Ibis, 1900, p. 95 [Zambesi]. 

 Coracias olivaceiceps, 8ha/rj)e, Cat. B. M. xvii, p. 25 (1892) ; Woodward 



Bros. Natal B. p. 87 (1899) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 247 [Salisbury]. 



Description. Male. — General colour above, olive-green ; frontal 

 band, eyebrow and a patch on the nape of the neck white, behind 

 the white nape patch a purple shading forming an incipient collar ; 



