50 Mr. W. Ayres oti Birds collected in the 



wherever there is suitable bush ; they have a dipping flight, 

 opening and shutting their wings pretty quickly, very unlike 

 the steady flight of the larger Owls. Other small birds 

 have a great dislike to them, and never lose a chance of 

 tormenting them and driving them about. 



386. TiENiOGLAUX CAPENSis (Smith). African Barred Owl. 



Female, shot 2nd July, 1885, at the junction of the Ma- 

 shupan and Olifants rivers (Transvaal). 



I shot this Owl in a dense strip of bush that skirts the 

 Mashupan river. I had not before met with it, but later on 

 I saw another on the Sinquitzie rivei", though, having only 

 a rifle with me, I could not secure it. 



[The late Mr. E. Buxton informed me that he found this 

 species common at Dar-es-Salaam, on the coast, about 70 

 miles S.W. of Zanzibar. Conf. Shelley, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 563, 

 and 1882, p. 305.— J. H. G.] 



CoRACiAs CAUDATA, Vicill. Lilac-brcastcd Roller. 



Male and female, shot at Buflels' Kraal, May 1885. 



These are shy birds and, as a rule, difficult to approach, 

 invariably settling on the top of some isolated tree or bush. 

 They are generally to be found singly or in pairs ; but when 

 the grass is burned in suitable localities I have seen as many 

 as a dozen or more together ; they then follow the course of 

 the fire, settling on trees and bushes in front of the flames 

 and pouncing down on beetles or grasshoppers that are driven 

 out by the heat. 



Ceryle maxima (Pall.). Great African Kingfisher. 



Male, shot at Lelitaba river-drift, August 1885. 



These birds, though nowhere plentiful, are to be found on 

 nearly all the rivers in this country, but they are extremely 

 shy and difficult to shoot. One of their nests was discovered 

 by my Boer driver in a perpendicular bank of a little stream 

 running into the Lehtaba at the drift ; it was in a hole about 

 four feet from the top of the bank, and, from below, a man 

 standing in the water up to his middle could just reach it. 

 The place w.as an awkward one to get at, especially as there 



