c?. According to Temminck in his ' Receuil des Oiseaux', the female is duller in 
colouring than the male and wants the black spot. We have reason to believe that these 
characters belong rather to the immature bird, and that the only difference between the 
sexes is that the female is slightly the smaller. A bird brought home this winter by Mr. 
J. Keast Lord, labelled male by dissection, has the spot, but we have not seen a sufficient 
series of properly ticketed birds to set the matter at rest. 
Iris silver gray {Keast Lord) violet {Sddegel) legs and feet brown, beak red. Front 
of the tarsus with six large shield-like scales. 
Habitat. North Eastern Africa, Abyssinia and Sennaar, (Eiqjpell) Cordofan {Ruysoe- 
naers), Nubia (J. Keast Lord), North East Africa ( Von Heuglin). 
The habits of this bird are better known than the other representatives of the genus, 
but very httle, as regards its anatomy and internal structure, has been put on record by the 
African observers. It resembles closely in appearance T. squamkeps, but the points of 
difference are shown in the description of the latter bird, which is rarer and a more recent 
addition to ornithology. It possesses the power of climbing like the rest of its congeners, 
and in its manner of nidification also shows an affinity to the Wood-peckers ; so much so 
that Mr. J. Keast Lord in describing the specimen brought home by him from Nubia, said, 
" I found this bird at Harkiko, and first saw it climbing on the trunk of one of the giant 
" cactus trees. I shot it under the impression that it was a Wood-pecker, and did not find out 
" my mistake till I had the bird in my hand, when it proved to be a male in full plumage 
" of T. margaritatus. This was the only one I saw, so that I conclude it is a rare bird." 
Dr. Von Heuglin in the "Ibis" for April 1861, says " T margaritatus is common in 
" the Bajuda Steppes, along the banks of the Nile South of Berber 17", Long., Ivordofan, 
" Sennaar, Taka, and in the Abyssinian and Somali coast lands. It is very widely diffused 
" in Eastern Africa; the male is somewhat larger than the female." 
According to Dr. Riippell, this bird frequents the dense foliage of the higher trees, and 
its note is loud and sonorous. 
In the " Ibis " (Vol. III., p. 122), Von Heuglin gives the following account of its nidi- 
fication and habits : — " Its note is loud and melodious, it feeds on berries, fruits, and insects, 
" which it gathers leaping from branch to branch ; its flight is unsteady and rapid, a series 
" of undulating movements. I have never seen one of them on the ground ; it lays from 
" four to six white eggs in September. The young remain together after they have left 
" the nest, and I have often noticed them in the months of October and November in their 
