227 



(5) Our " Land-Ouail " is a true Quail {Cohirnix), 

 which is rather rare and only occasionally met with, 

 and then only an odd one here and there in the long- 

 grass of a dry swamp. 



(6) The "Bush-Turkey" is a Bustard, {^Oiis 

 melaiiogaster, I think), a large and handsome bird, 

 which however is very local in its distribution ; I have 

 only met with it in one or two places, though, in the 

 few districts to which it is partial, it seems not un- 

 common. The male is a fine noble-looking bird, 

 mostly black and white, while the female is smaller 

 and mottled brown in colour. This is undoubtedly by 

 far the best of our food-birds from a culinary point of 

 view, as it combines size and qualit}', while its legs, 

 plump and rounded, are particularly succulent. After 

 it, from this point of view, comes the Guineafowl, and 

 then the young Bushfowl, the Green and the Black 

 Pigeons, followed, but after a big interval, by the adult 

 Bushfowl, the Sand-Grouse and the Rock Bushfowl, 

 all of which are dry, hard, and tasteless, and need a 

 lot of stewing. 



With this digression from birds into the domain of 

 the cook, I will close these notes ; after all it is not 

 much of a digression, at least out here, where the 

 connection of the bird with the pot is a close one, or 

 at any rate should be, if one's meals are to be satis- 

 factory in quantity and quality. 



THE END. 



