715 
by Mr. Claude Grant in South Africa. 
size and by the blacker chin and throat. The series col¬ 
lected by Grant shew some variation in size, though a by 
no means constant one, but the character of the black chin 
is fairly noticeable and may suffice. 
[“ Muis-vogel ” or “ Mouse-bird ” of the Colonists; 
“ Nhlazi ” of the Zulus. 
This is the common Coly of most localities that I 
visited. I have met with it in the Cape Peninsula, the 
Knysna district, Zululand and Natal, the South-Eastern, 
Eastern, and North-Eastern Transvaal, and the Inhambane, 
Beira, Gorongoza, and Tete districts of Portuguese East 
Africa. It was found to be more plentiful farther north, 
and was especially common in the Inhambane district. It is 
gregarious in habit, and was often found in flocks of twenty 
or more individuals feeding on fruit and berries. It does 
considerable damage in orchards and gardens. 
It gets its name of “ Mouse-bird” from the quaint way 
in which it clambers among the branches and its habit of 
getting into thick bushes and remaining quiet, much as 
mice will do. The cry is a whistle, uttered generally when 
on the wing or on being disturbed, and is apparently both 
call- and alarm-note. The flight is low, straight, and rapid, 
often with a few rapid beats of the wing and a long glide, 
the birds, as a rule, diving into the middle of the bushes 
before settling. 
The soft parts are :—I rides brown ; bill, upper mandible 
dark slate, lower light slate ; legs and toes dark crimson.] 
424. Colius CAPENSIS. 
GCo Table Mt. slopes, Feb. (1) ; Durban Ed., Meh., 
Sept. (2) ; Port Nolloth, Aug. (2) ; Klipfontein, May (1). 
I can see no difference in colour between the Cape Penin¬ 
sula and Namaqualand birds, so that the latter shew no 
approach to C. c. damarensis Beichw. 
[“ Muis-vogel” or “Mouse-bird '* of the Colonists. 
I have only observed this Mouse-bird in the Cape Peninsula 
and Namaqualand, and it was common in both localities. 
In habits it resembles C. striatus, being, like that species, 
gregarious and generally seen in flocks of perhaps a dozen 
