1870.] BULGER — A FEW HOURS AT CAPE TOWN. 367 



mudw as the sand, aJorued with several species of Mesembryun- 

 themum, and other plants, amongst which, the most striking and 

 beautiful was a small, graceful shrub with pale-coloured? 

 finely cut foliage, and a profusion of round, scarlet orange 

 berries, which had an agreeably astringent taste. I had never 

 met with this ele2:ant little bush before, and neither of mv 

 companions appeared to recognize it, though L. — said he believed 

 the fruit was known to the Dutch Colonists as " skildpatbesjes " 

 or tortoise-berries, a name applied, however, by Pappe-'^ to the, 

 drupes of a very different plant, the Mandtia sp'uwsao^ Kunth. 

 T have since been informed, through the kindness of a friend, that 

 the graceful little stranger was the Chymococca empetro'ides of De 

 Candolle. It appeared to grow in considerable abundance, and 

 was conspicuously gay from the brilliant colour and beauty of its 

 clusters of bria'ht berries. 



Almost immediately after crossing the river, a flock of sander- 

 lings sprang from the ground before us, and flew along towards 

 the sea, while one solitary curlew (^Numemiis ca'quatus),j arose 

 uttering his peculiar alarm note, got up from the opposite bank 

 and soon disappeared : no others were visible, and as far as 

 we could S3e, the river margin was only tenanted by the smaller 

 birds. For some distance we walked on without meeting with 

 any more curlews, but, at last, half a dozen came flying up the 

 river at a tolerable height above us, entirely, as I thought, out of 

 range; however, L. — , who was a short distance to my left, was 

 of a different opinion, as he fired at the nearest bird, and brought 

 it down satisfactorily. The river-sands and mud-banks were alive 

 with little, busy, graceful creatures, now running over the moist 

 edges of the stream, now taking wing and wheeling with the speed 

 and wonderful unity of action, so to speak, which characterizes 

 the aerial movements of the gregarious plovers and sandpipers, 

 while the music of their plaintive, whistling notes rose and fell 

 upon the breeze, as they swept past us, hither and thither, over 

 their desolate feeding-grounds ; but no more curlews were to be 

 seen, and we soon diverged from our course to the sea shore, 

 where we seated ourselves upon a log, and preceded to refresh the 

 inner man with sandwiches and other portable kinds of food. 



* FJorce caiiensis medicoi prodromus. 



t Layard says {Birds of South Jfrica, p. 322) " Schlegel separates 

 our South African species from the European bird ou account of its size, 

 and calls it XumcniKS major.'^ 



