r.in'»s OF Tin-: I'.urrALo basix 70 



stone«, as there was no appaieut attempt at making a 

 nest. It was 1.85 inches long, 0.75 inches in diameter; 

 it was thickly mottled with vandyke brown on a dark 

 drab ground colour. One or two other species of i>lovev 

 occur here periodically but 1 have not yet been a!)le to 

 satisfactorily identify them. 



The Birds of the Buffalo Basin, Cape Province. III. 

 By The Kev. Robert Godfrey. 



The Black Tit — Par us niger V^ieill — ranges through- 

 out the mimosa country and along the edge of the 

 forest, where its noisy and obtrusive habits force it upon 

 our notice In small exploring parties it works its way 

 among the miraosa, continually jerking out its rough 

 cries and sometimes displaying effective work on the 

 twigs with its powerful bill. The Kaffir name isicukujeje 

 is an attempt to reproduce one of its cries. This species 

 has also a song whose period has not, hoAvever, been 

 w^orked out. 



On 16th December, 1914, attracted by the rowdy calling 

 of one of these birds, my wife and I watched one tly into 

 a dead yellowwood. It was carrying food in its bill, 

 and, without abating its noise, it flew to its nest-hole, 

 a crack in the stem about twenty feet from the ground. 

 Transferring its burden to its young, it flew ol¥ and soon 

 returned in silence with another fat grub. It moved 

 about for a little in the tree, and at last disappeared com- 

 pletely into the hole; on emerging it was carrying with it 

 a dropping. All this was done in silence. Nine minutes 

 later it cried in the tree, but, as it made no sign of 

 returning to its nest, we left it. The nest itself was quite 

 beyond our i-each. 



