58. Longtailed-Fiscal Another black-and-white bird. In days past, a ‘fiscal’ was a treasury official: i.e. not to put too fine a point on it, a tax collector. It seems to fit this bird: the forbidding black suit and white dress-shirt and, more especially perhaps, the sharply-hooked business end of that strong-looking bill. Colour is important not merely for plumage: the fiscals, for example, lay pale blue eggs marked with dark blotches. It is not always clear why some birds’ eggs are coloured in the way that they are. One reason must be connected with ‘brood parasitism’, that nasty habit of birds such as the cuckoo of laying its eggs in another bird’s nest, leaving them to be brought up by their hosts. A foreign egg markedly different in colour or patterning should, in theory, be easily recognised and disposed of by the host. I say ‘in theory’ because some hosts seem not to notice such things, and desperately continue to keep fed a loudly demanding chick that is several times bigger in the nest than themselves. To make matters worse, the more unscrupulous parasites lay eggs that mimic the colour and patterning of those of their hosts, locking together the reproduction of both species. Birds of AFRICAMA House 120 Birds of AFRICAMA House 121