The Birds of Gambia. 
93 
These three Short-tailed Glossy St;irlin}j;s are all found in the Gambia. 
The latter is iimcli the most common, and to be seen everywhere, 
often in enormous flocks. When the corn is ripening they eat large 
quantities of the nearly lipe corn, but at other times feed jiartly on insects 
and fruits of various bnsh trees. After a bush fire they find a bounteous 
banquet of half-baked grasshoppers, locusts, etc., and when a swarm of the 
latter appears they then too have an opportunity of gorging themselves on 
those insects. At times one sees them flycatching from the tops of trees, 
flying up and returning with their prey to their perch, a.s Sparrows do after 
daddy-longlegs in the summer at home. Towards evening they collect 
into flocks and fly to their respective roosting places, which are frequently 
in low trees near or over the water, where they collect for the night, mak- 
ing a great commotion and disturbance as the sun goes down, as they 
chatter and quarrel for tlieir places. 
Of the three species, the first two show a prevailing gloss of green, in 
the third the chief colour is blue or purple. The two green birds hardly 
differ except in size, the first being distinctly larger than the second, while 
the Purple Starling is in size midway between the two green species. 
Native names are Weer-Weer (IMandingo), and Yerayer ( Joloff ). 
The little boys who are out all day scaring birds in the fields catch 
them ill large uunibers during the harvest time, and I have kept a good 
many at different times, but I do not find them very easy birds to accustom 
to cage life and food, though this cannot be the rule, as I have often seen 
both at home and out here at the seaports cages containing thirty or more 
all healthy and feeding well on a most unpromising looking food. 
As cage birds too they are not very satisfactorj' owing to their 
noisy chatter and huge appetites. 
Spreo pulchei . 
Range. North-east Africa to the Niger and Seneganibia. {B.M. Cat.) 
A beautiful chestnut-breasted Glossy Starling, which I have so far 
never been fortunate enough to meet with since I have been in the Gambia. 
P/wlidaiises leucoxader. AMETHYST STARLING. 
Range. West and North-east Africa. 
Very common in the more wooded parts of the Gambia from about 
IMay till the end of the rains, while a smaller number remain with us all 
the year round, especialh* in the districts nearest to the sea. Generally met 
with in pairs, but in May and June are often seen in small parties feeding 
with Orioles and other birds on the Sotoes and other wild fig-trees. 
The male is a most beautiful bird, two-coloured, a lovely metallic 
puce-purple contrasting with the purest white. The hen is a plain brown 
and white bird. In 1906 I had two males alive, one of which I gave to the 
Zoo, where it still thrives. They are, however, very rarely caught ; these 
two were the onlj' ones I ever saw in captivit\', and, although I have been 
trying to get others, I have never succeeded. In confinement I found them 
very easj' to cater for. 
