THE BUSH-SHRIKES. 
81 
sabrah, and verses in praise of him are sung as commonly as in England 
our poets do honour to the thrush. His nest is a neat little fabric of 
dried grass and slender twigs, lined with a coat of mud ; the eggs are 
coloured and spotted like, but smaller than, those of our well-known 
blackbird. 
CRESTED ANT-THKUSII 
The bush-shrikes, both in species and as individuals, are abundant 
in the localities we speak of ; and are remarkable for a peculiar falling 
note, loudly and suddenly uttered, and exchanged antiphonally between 
male and female. Generally, they hide themselves in the densest and 
most impenetrable bushes, rarely descending to the ground, and feeding 
upon the small insects and larvae they discover about the bushes and 
twigs. They are small birds, with a long compressed bill, and loose, 
long silky feathers, prettily spotted or banded with black and white. 
6 
