Zoological Illustrations Series II/Plate 76



Among the few Ornithological subjects which that accomplished traveller, Mr. Burchell, has yet published from his vast collections of African Zoology, is the charming bird here figured. It was discovered near Litakoon, the principal town of the Bachapins, a nation never before known to Europeans. Its principal range is between lat. 27. 20. and 29. 10. S. on the meridian of 24. E. "To a traveller," continues our friend, "wandering through the airy groves of the Transgaripine, the sight of these Lanii, flying from branch to branch above his head, and displaying their fine colour in all its brilliancy, suddenly arrests his steps, and claims his admiration. Viewed in such a position, little of their black colour is seen, and they then appear to be entirely scarlet."

A most beautiful analogy may be traced between the two principal groups of the Bush Shrikes, and those of the Ant-thrushes. The genus Malaconotus corresponds to the Pittæ, in being restricted to the old world, in the vivid colours of their plumage, and the connexion, in the typical species, of the two outer toes. In Thamnophilus and Myothera, both American groups, the colours are uniformly dark; and their resemblance in structure is so close, that no author has yet pointed out their distinctions.