Birds of the Buffalo Basin 37 



Birds of the Buffalo Basin, Cape Province. 



V. 



By The Rev. Robert Godfrey. 



Nicholson's Pipit — A. nicholsoni Sharper This species, whicb 

 ranks as a scarce resident in the upper part of the Buffalo Basin, 

 has proved in my experience one of the most tantaHsing of our 

 local birds. It had been previously recorded from Kingwilliams- 

 town in the month of May, but in my own experience it v^as 

 obtained once only at Pirie, on 19th November, 1912, when 

 my little hunters brought in three species of pipits, the Lesser 

 Tawny Pipit, the Plain-backed Pipit, and Nicholson's Pipit. 

 The last-named was accompanied by a fragment of the nest, 

 the inner lining of brownish wiry roots with odd pieces of rougher 

 material, and two eggs. The eggs, measuring 22.5-23 mm. by 

 16, are distinct from all other pipit eggs I have handled at Pirie; 

 they are clouded white or stone in ground colour, profusely 

 covered with purplish-brown and blackish-brown spots and blotches, 

 forming a dark band near the larger end. 



Lesser Tawny Pipit — A. raalteni Bp. : In the neighbourhood 

 of the Pirie forest, the large Plain-backed Pipit is the predomin- 

 ating specie?, but, on the open grass-lands and cultivated areas 

 away from the forest, the present species is much the commoner. 

 From its characteristic mode of singing in the air, a habit in 

 which it resembles the three British species, the Lesser Tawny 

 Pipit claims attention wherever present. The bird rises almost 

 perpendicularly, and in silence, to a height of forty or fifty feet, 

 then flies along horizontally, uttering the single note of its song 

 '* tswee" thrice ; a pause in the song follows, during which the 

 bird may either keep on its horizontal course, or, more usually, 

 may rise to a higher air terrace, where, in another horizontal 

 flight, it repeats the song. The singer may repeat this manoeuvre 

 as often as ten times, or it may be content with much less. At the 



