BIRDS OF THE BUFFALO BASIN 205 



The nesting,-season lasts from October to March, the 

 earliest eggs at Pirie having been brought in on October 

 28, and the young having been seen in the nests as late 

 as Maich 1(>. The nest is built among gTass^ sometimes 

 close to the ground, at other times a little above it in a 

 place where the grass is strengthened by shrubs. It is 

 a loose domed structure, of broad plant-blades externally, 

 with liner material in the inner layers. A felted mass 

 of white vegetable down lines the entire inner surface 

 and renders the structure compact in spite of its loose 

 appearance, ^>et^^een the loose grasses and the white 

 downy lining there may be a sparing layer of plant 

 fibres. The eggs, three or four in number, var}^ in ground 

 colour from white to greenish-white or greenish-blue; 

 they are freckled and spotte<.l all over^ so closely at the 

 larger end as to form in some cases a zonal band, with 

 varying shades of brown, and measure 15 x 12 mm. • 



Cisticola aherrans (A. f^mith) — Smith's Grass-warbler 

 — is much less numerous than its small relative^ the Ned- 

 diky, but is widely distributed. It occurs in the shore 

 scrub at East London, and is common both below and 

 above the forest at Pirie. In some of the upland dis- 

 tricts it is our commonest grass-warbler. It frequents 

 scrubby hillsides, the long vegetation about marshy 

 ground, the tall grass bordering the forests and the rough 

 borders of cultivated lands. In habits as well as in ap- 

 pearance this species is a large edition of the jS^eddiky ; 

 it moves restlessly about among the long grass and scrub, 

 carrying its long tail erect and flirting it in a fashion 

 very characteristic of this group. In a series of succes- 

 sive spasmodic jerks it moves its tail a considerable w^ay 

 to the right, then by a similar succession of Jerks it 

 brings it back to the normal position and moves it on to 

 the left, making its tail go like a jerk\' pendulum. 



Some of its cries closely resemble those of the Neddiky, 

 especially its alarm qu/pt/ju^qu resembling the Kafir q 

 click, which moreover under special excitement is run 

 into a trill. This species also utters a drawn-out peep, 



