336 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Birds of Natal 6^c. 



65. Thalassornis leuconotAj Smith. White-backed 

 Duck. 



The specimen sent was shot on a pan in this district ; I 

 have only seen three or four s^iecimens of this species^ though 

 I have done a good deal of Duck-shooting here. 



66. Plotus levaillanti, Licht. African Darter. 

 There are always one or two Darters about the river close 



to Kroonstad, but I have only seen them singly^ never in 

 pairs ; they sit on old dead stumps of trees over the water 

 and dive with great ease^ coming up with their heads just 

 out of the water. For some reason or other they are very 

 difficult to kill. From the specimen sent I took a freshly- 

 killed yellow fish 9| inches in length. 



[A few years since the Zoological Society of London pos- 

 sessed a living specimen of Plotus levaillanti, and also examples 

 of P. anhinga and of P. melanoy aster. Mr. Bartlett has been so 

 good as to inform me that all three species, whilst under his 

 observation, captured the living fishes on which they fed in the 

 same manner, and that a peculiar one : the Darter always 

 transfixed the fish on its sharp under mandible, from which 

 it was subsequently tossed off and swallowed ; a somewhat 

 strenuous jerk was required to throw the fish off from the 

 lower mandible which had transfixed it, owing to the tomise 

 of both mandibles being finely serrated. — J. H. G-.] 



XXXV. — Notes on the Birds of Natal and adjoining 

 parts of South Africa. By Henry Seebohm. 



Although Natal is a very small country it embraces a wide 

 range of climate, from the almost tropical coast, heated by 

 the warm current of the Indian Ocean (which flows steadily 

 from the equator) , up to the temperate regions of the moun- 

 tain valleys, five or six thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea, at the foot of the Drakenberg range, which attain an 

 elevation of eight to ten thousand feet. The character of 

 the country varies also in other ways. The sugar-canes of 

 Durban, the mealies (Indian corn) of Maritzberg, the bush 



