Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE SONG BIRDS
THE BABBLING THRUSHES
Pied Babbler
Another even larger genus of Babblers is Crateropus, inhabiting the whole of Africa below the Sahara as well as the Indian peninsula and Ceylon, and differing from the last chiefly in possessing a shorter tail and stouter bill. The Pied Babbler (C. bicolor) of the interior of Africa is a striking bird, being white throughout with the exception of the wings, tail, bill, and legs, which are black. According to Mr. Ayres, they go in flocks from tree to tree or bush to bush with feeble flight, following each other almost in single file. They are found usually among low bushes on the dry plains, and when one commences its peculiar sort of clucking note, it is followed by the others, the noise increasing until it is almost deafening. They build a compact, deep, circular nest of twigs and grasses in a low bush, laying usually three greenish blue eggs.