Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/173

160 The plumage of these birds is short, dense, and smooth, with a silky appearance; the feathers of the body are furnished with an accessory plume, those on the lower part of the back are very short, those of the head are lengthened, forming a long pointed crest, which can be erected at pleasure. The prevailing colours are sombre, as grey or ashen, from which circumstance, and from that of their crawling about trees, they are denominated at the Cape of Good Hope, Muys-vögel, or Mouse-birds.

These birds subsist mainly on fruits, the buds of trees, and the tender sprouts of vegetables; from the mischief which they do in the gardens of the colonists, devouring the shoots of the culinary plants as fast as they appear, they are much disliked. They walk badly on the ground, but are expert climbers, clinging to the branches in all sorts of attitudes. They sail from bush to bush in a long row, one after another, alighting always near the ground, and clambering to the topmost twigs, with the assistance of their beak and long stiff tail, picking off the buds or berries as they ascend; and they do not pass to the next bush till the whole flock is ready, when they again sail along in the same regular succession. Their cry is monotonous, the windpipe (trachea) being furnished with only a single pair of vocal muscles; and that of the largest species is said to resemble the bleating of a lamb. Their bodies are much more heavy and massive than would be supposed at first appearance, the plumage lying very flat and close.

The nests of the Colies, which, as already remarked, are placed in groups, are spacious and of a round form; in each of these is deposited