COLLECTION OF BIRDS. 343 



attract attention by the beautiful colours of their 

 plumage. The three most brilliant amongst 

 them are the blue-faced barbet (bucco cyanops, 

 Cuvier). The red-bellied couroucou of Sumatra^ 

 and the couroucou narina from the south of 

 Africa. The two first were brought by M. Du- 

 vaucel, and the other by M. Delalande. 



In the seventeenth case, is the numerous genus 

 of shrikes (lanius). These birds live in families ; 

 their attachment to their young is such that, al- 

 though not larger than a common blackbird, 

 the female will fight with the crow in defence 

 of her covey, and is frequently victorious. The 

 grey shrike (lanius excubitor), of the size of a 

 thrush, remains in France all the year long. The 

 I. rufusj, and the red-backed shrike (/. collurio), 

 quit us in winter. The latter, which is the 

 smallest of all, pursues insects, and fixes them in 

 the bushes, to find them when it needs food. It 

 imitates the voice of other birds. 



Amongst the foreign species, those most re- 

 markable for their colour are the bacbakiri 

 {tardus zeylonicus) from the Cape, the blue shrike 

 of Madagascar, and the shrike with a red throat 

 [lanius gutturalis, Baud., Ann. du Mus.), from the 

 coast of Angola. The vanga is a species of 

 shrike with a compressed beak. The most cu- 

 rious are the blanchot of Senegal, the tufted vanga 



