248 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
connectant between Calophoneus and Chlorophoneus, is found in Cosmo- 
phoneus, represented in South Africa by C. abhotti, which has been secured 
as far south as Woodbush. In this genus the bill is also long and narrow, 
but broad at the base, and in colour it has the throat and chest orange, 
the forehead, lores and superciliary stripe, like the ear-coverts, black, white 
or yellow on the forehead being the characteristic of the other genera. In 
the typical Chlorophoneus and two other species which occur within our 
limits, the bill is short. The three species overlap in distribution, and colour 
would seem to play a part in preventing their interbreeding. C. ruhiginosus 
occurs in the temperate timber forests, from Knysna to Natal and thence 
northwards at higher altitudes along the eastern escarpment to Nyasaland; 
C. stilphureipectus occurs in the hotter low country as far south as Kaffraria; 
while C. olivaceus occurs side by side with C. ruhiginosus in the temperate 
timber forests from Knysna northwards as far as Swaziland. These three 
species are closely allied, C. olivaceus and C. ruhiginosus, which occur side 
by side being, so far as our present knowledge extends, indistinguishable 
•when young, while the low-country species, C. sulphur eipectus, is more 
highly coloured, as one would expect from the nature of its habitat. 
The very large Bush Shrike, Malaconotus, is so very distinct in the shape 
of its biU that it seems to have little relation to the others, the similarity 
in colour being nothing but the effect of similar environment. 
In the red-winged Shrikes we have a clearly marked group of shrikes 
which frequent a dry, thorn-thicket, environment, characterised as the 
name signifies by the colour of the wings. No doubt the nature of their 
environment has played a part in the development of their colour char- 
acters ; but whether they are so trulj/ related as to be referred to the same 
genus is not assured, as they differ considerably in the shape of the bill 
and length of the rictal bristles. I would place our species in four genera, 
characterised as follows: Tschagra Lesson, genotype T. tschagra, also known 
as Pomatorhynchus or Telephonus, has the bill as long, or nearly as long, 
as the tarsus, and the rictal bristles very short. Harpolestes Cabanis, geno- 
type P. senegalus, has a shorter biU and the rictal bristles very long. Anti- 
chromus Richmond, genotype A. anchietae, is smaller than the two pre- 
ceding and has a shorter and weaker bill, but strongly developed rictal 
bristles. Tschagroides gen. nov., type Telephonus australis A. Smith, is 
also smaller than Tschagra and Harpolestes, but has a short, stout and 
conical bill and very weak bristles. 
In the subfamily Prionopinae, two genera are commonly recognised, 
Prionops and Sigmodus] but there are at least four genera. Prionops is 
commonly distinguished from Sigmodus in text-books on the comparative 
length of the exposed portion of the bill and the extent to which the 
nostrils are hidden by the frontal bristles. In the typical Sigmodus the 
base of the bill is exposed; but in 5. retzii (Wahlberg) the base of the bill 
is hidden by the frontal bristles, the longer of which extend over the nostrils, 
and I would therefore place it in a new genus under the name of Eres- 
SORNIS. Prionops, genotype P. talacoma A. Smith, has the frontal bristles 
extending halfway along the bill and completely hiding the nostrils. 
Phaidrometopon, gen. nov., type Sigmodus scopifrons Peters, differs 
from all other African shrikes in having a bunch of thickened, brush-like, 
bristles on the forehead, very different from the long, curving, bilaterally 
