The true Shrikes, of which two, if not three species inhabit England, are bold and cruel birds: they attack others, scarcely smaller than themselves, and seize them like a Falcon, by their talons during flight. The Bush Shrikes on the other hand, are a more ignoble race; they only prowl after young or sickly birds, and seek their principal nourishment from those insects which shelter in foliage. These birds form two distinct groups, confined to the tropical latitudes of the Old and the New World. The first, _Thamnophilus_, is restricted to America, and the species are known by their dark coloured plumage. _Malaconotus_, is, we believe, purely an African group, while most of the typical species, like the present, are cloathed in bright and beautiful colours. This elegant bird seems to be abundant in Western Africa, but is rare towards the Cape of Good Hope. Hence Le Vaillant had no opportunity of learning its peculiar manners. Its size is that of a Thrush; the feathers on the back are very long, and the first joint of the outer toe is _free_. Nature, ever prone to typify her relations, and to preserve harmony between groups, essentially distinct, has given to the bill of this bird, a form closely resembling that of _Pitta_; the genus by which _Malaconotus_ is represented among the Thrushes. A partial consideration of this group induced us, some years ago, to adopt the generic name of _Laniarius_; but in a more recent investigation of the species so denominated, we have failed to discover sufficient reason for separating them, generically, from _Malaconotus_. * * * * * * [Illustration: DONACOBIUS _vociferans_. _Babbling Thrush._] DONACOBIUS vociferans. _Babbling Thrush._ ---- Family Merulidæ. Sub-family Macropodianæ. _Nob._ CHARACTERS. Bill arched from the base, moderate, and generally entire; wings very short: tail broad, rounded. Feet and toes of great strength and size; plumage lax, and soft. _Nobis._ GRACULA (_pars._) _Cuv._ POMATORHINUS. _Horsf. Tem._ (_pars._) PITTA. (_p._) OPETIORHYNCHUS. IXOS. (_p._) MALURUS (_p._) _Tem._ TIMALIA. MEGALURUS. _Horsf._ DASYORNIS. PHOSPHODES. _Vig._ ---- GENERIC CHARACTER. Bill slender, moderate, the upper mandible notched; nostrils naked, membranaceous, the aperture terminal. ---- SPECIFIC CHARACTER. _Above blackish brown, beneath fulvous yellow; sides of the body lineated with black lines, base of the quills and tips of the laternal tail feathers pure white, sides of the neck, with a naked space._ Gracula longirostris? _Auct._ ----