PART II. 



Some Birds of South Africa 



CHAPTER I. 

 Houw Hoek and Stanford. 



"^nr^HERE'S a power av vartue in keepin' things 

 sep'rate," was the remark of Long Jack, in Mr- 

 KipHng's Captains Courageous, and it must be admitted 

 that under a somewhat rough exterior that mariner 

 carried a divining mind. 



Few countries which are in many ways similar as 

 to cHmatic conditions, present greater contrast with 

 regard to their people than the Canary Islands and 

 Cape Colony, and we do well to throw off as it were 

 from our minds the cloak of romance which envelopes 

 the former before entering on the latter country. No- 

 thing perhaps accomplishes this better than a fortnight's 

 sea voyage, but we cannot afford either the time or the 

 money to take a fortnight's sea voyage in the middle 

 of every book that we read, hence the advisability of 

 " keepin' things sep'rate." 



The South African winter of 1899 had been an 

 unusually wet one, as many as twenty-nine inches of 

 rain having been registered in one of the suburbs of 

 Cape Town for the month of August alone, while on 

 one occasion during that month the water was pouring 

 down Adderley Street, doing a vast amount of damage 



