74 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



list can obtain many good specimens on the Pretoria 

 market, for the Boers are then able to bring their game 

 in for sale, which is impossible in the damp hot weather. 

 The farmers are fond of shooting, but are equally glad 

 to find a market for the game, which with forage, fire- 

 wood, and other articles are sold by auction off the 

 wagons before breakfast by the market auctioneer. 

 Amongst birds, the Paauw (Otis kori] may often be 

 bought, and I have known a heavy bird to fetch as 

 much as 2 10s., for its flesh is very rich and highly 

 flavoured, and I cannot agree with Mr. Ayres that the 

 flesh " is too coarse and oily to be good eating " *. My 

 man secured me a fine 20-lb. specimen, which he killed 

 with No. 6 shot a few miles out from Pretoria. Its crop, 

 as I have remarked before, was full of locusts, and it 

 was certainly the fattest bird I ever skinned, my hands 

 being saturated with grease by the time I had finished 

 the operation. The bird does not seem at Pretoria to 

 reach the great weight it does in other parts of South 

 Africa. The proprietor of the hotel at which I boarded 

 told me that the largest specimen he ever bought 

 weighed 28 Ibs., and a friend who had been an energetic 

 sportsman for many years had only once bagged a 

 Paauw that reached 32 Ibs. On the other hand, I met 

 a gentleman at Potchefstroom who said he had shot a 

 specimen that weighed 41 Ibs., and this was the largest 

 he had ever seen or heard of in that neighbourhood. This 

 I believe is about the maximum weight of which we have 

 any authentic record, and I am somewhat sceptical 

 as to the existence of the reported 50-lb. or GO-lb. 

 Paauws f . 



The smaller Bustards, Otis ca-rulescens and Otis 

 afroidcs, are not at all difficult to obtain 011 the market, 

 and the Spur-winged Goose (Plectropterus gambensis) is 



* Layard's ' Birds of South Africa,' Sharpe's edit. p. 633. 



t Mohr states that he has shot specimens weighing thirty-five pounds 

 (' To the Victoria Falls.' p. 33). Mr. Ayres, though he had often heard of 

 40-lb. Bustards heing shot, never saw one of anything like the weight, though 

 one of 40 Ibs. was reported as shot by Mr. Buxton (Layard's ' Birds of 

 Africa,' Sharpe's edit. pp. 632-3). Burchell describes his typical specimen 

 as measuring in extent of wing not less than seven feet (' Travels,' i. p. 393). 



