Volume 17, Plate XXIII / Ornithology (Birds)

Puff-Backed Bush-Shrike

Malaconotus mollissimus

A bush-shrike remarkable for soft white down on its lower back that forms a swan-like semicircular tippet when raised and vanishes at rest, a social species living in small companies and crying cha cha. The male has glossy black upper plumage, white lower back, and white under parts, while the female bears no black, being light grey above and fulvous below; it feeds on insect larvae and builds in thorny thickets.