280 
Birds In and About the Station. 
cross -ray markings especially on the tail render it quite hand- 
some. We get the more brightly coloured eastern variety. 
I kept some for a good long time and found them /easy 
to cater for, in fact I did not even trouble to m(!at them 
olT but tui'ncd them straight into the aviary where there was 
a liberal diet going for other insectivorous birds. 1 think 
this was the right treatment as they soon got tame ^ind 
settled down very well, whereas, as I afterwards found out, 
they are not desirable birds for cage life. On the voyage 
home it was a toss-up which cage I hated the more, theirs 
(which certainly included two very wild Chinese '"Spectacle" 
Thrushes) or the Sibias. They were very nervous and ^not 
clean. In the aviary they were most interesting, thougii there 
were occasions M'hen I wished I had never caught them. One 
day I saw a bird di'op from the top of the f;ir side of the 
aviary, and had a long and fruitless search for a bird witli 
a fit. The mystery solved itself the next day when I saw 
my three lineatum do their drop one after the other and 
streak along the ground to cover. I have only twice had 
experience of birds with fits, but am not likely to forget what 
they look like and bar the thud this drop gave one the exact 
impression of a bird in a fit. Even when I knew the drop 
well it often gave me an unpleasant start. Of course I ought 
not to have been caught at all as I had often seen these 
biids do this in a wild state. Babblers and other T>aughing- 
Thrushes (which I have noticed) cross an open space by 
hopping (hunting on the way) to the top of a tree and then 
sailing one after tjie other on outspread wings to the foot 
of the next. Our friend "Streaks", who usually goes about 
in parties of from six to ten, hops to the top, does his "drop", 
and scuttles along, half hop half fly, to the nearest cover, often 
jinking and turning back to his starting point. One can 
quite understand the reason for this in scrub-jungle country 
where bushes are Ioav and hawks abound, but I have seen them 
do it in forest country too. 
Then too they are annoying when one wishes to catch 
them out of the aviary. Mr. Kennedy (who kindly helped me to 
"pack up") and I had a very trying time with thein, they are 
such beggars to jink and hide, and when you have got them 
there is a good chance of their slipping out of your hand, 
