following description is taken from a Mosambique specimen in tbe
British Museum:—Above fulvous brown, inclining to tawny, the
least wing-coverts coloured like the back, the rest of the coverts
chestnut edged with fulvous brown; quills chestnut, inclining to
blackish brown for the terminal third; tail entirely chestnut; head
chestnut brown, rather darker than the back; an eye-brow drawn
to the hinder neck light grey; cheeks and ear-coverts light ashy-
brown; throat tawny-buff, surrounded by a narrow line of black,
which runs as a moustachial streak from the lower mandible down
the sides of the throat, and joins on the fore-neck; rest of undersurface
of body tawny-buff, much deeper on the under wing-coverts ;
upper breast greyish. Total length, 7'5 inches; culmen, 0'8 ; wing,
3'45; tail, 3'5; tarsus, 1T5.
Fig. Heuglin, Ibis, 1868, pi. ix. fig. 1.
215. C ichladusa ruficauda. Red-tailed Chat-Thrush.
Originally described by M. Jules Verreaux from the Gaboon, the
present bird is included in this work on account of its occurrence in
Benguela. A single specimen is recorded by Professor Barboza du
Bocage as having been obtained by Senor Anchieta in the latter
country, where it is called by the natives “ Kitoni. Never having
seen a specimen of this bird, we translate the following description
from Dr. Hartlaub’s " Birds of Western Africa.”
Above pale brownish-red; the back more ashy; head and wings
browner; rump and tail bright red, the shafts of the tail feathers
red; primaries dusky ; under wing-coverts isabelline colour; sides
of the head and neck, eyebrow, breast, and sides of the abdomen
ashy; middle of the abdomen, chin, and throat pale buff; under
tail-coverts pale rufous; bill black; feet dusky. Total length,
7 inches; bill, T ; wing, 3" 3'"; tail, * tarsus, Mg; middle toe,
with claw, 8^'".
216. Pinarornis plumosus, Sharpe.* Sooty-brown Chat-Thrush.
The British Museum contains the unique type of this curious bird,
for which no name appears to have been proposed, and it is here
designated as belonging to an undescribed genus and species. The
single example yet known was contained in a collection from the
f Trli’Spof, sordidus ; Qpvig, avis.
Victoria Palls, Zambesi, and was received at the Museum through
Mr. Cutter.
It is very difficult to know where to place this new genus. It
has the plumage of a dusky Chat, but in the form of its bill and feet
it approaches Grateropus ; from this genus, however, it differs in the
long loose plumage of the rump, and in the long upper tail-coverts
which remind us of Bradypterus ; altogether it is a peculiar form
which must be placed among the Thrushes, leading off from the
Grateropi to the Chats and Warblers.
Adult.—General colour above and below sooty-brown, a few of
the frontal plumes, the lores, and the throat edged with greyish
White; wings and tail darker than the body, and approaching to
black, the primaries with a very large spot of white on the inner
webs, and the three outer tail-feathers with a large spot of white at
the tip; bills and legs black. Total length, 10-2 inches; culmen,.
0;95,; wing, 4-2; tail, 5*5; tarsus, 1-25.
217. . M yrmecocichla formicivora. Southern Ant-eating Wheatear.
Le Vaillant found this Wheatear near the Sunday and Zwartkop
riyers, not far from Algoa Bay, where we also observed it in abundance
during a flying visit to that locality. He says that it perches
on high trees, but in this he is certainly wrong, as far as our own
experience goes, for we have never seen them perch even on a bush,
though Mr. Andersson says that they do so. Like S. pileata they-
habitually conceal themselves in rat-holes. Le Vaillant states that
he found their nests in holes or under rocks, and that the eggs were
white.
We have received many specimens from the neighbourhood of
Colesberg and Kuruman, and Mr. T. C. Atmore forwarded us a
skin of one obtained by him at Burghendorp in May 187L Mr.
Rickard observes that it is common at Port Elizabeth, but is never
met with away from ant-hills, in which he believes they roost and
also breed. We found it to be a curiously local bird, and during
our recent visit to the eastern frontier we would drive for the best
part of a day without seeing a single specimen, and then suddenly
we would come upon a spot where there were two or three families.
Pass this spot as often as we would, there we always saw the birds !
There is one such place between Grahamstown and Table Farm,
where we knew that we could always shoot a specimen, we might