344 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Birds of Natal S^c. 



in different localities. The rainy season is^ as a rule, during 

 summer, but there is a strip of country near the coast, ex- 

 tending from Cape Town to Knysna, where the rain falls in 

 winter, and between the two districts is a belt of country of 

 uncertain rainfall, where in some years it rains every month, 

 and in others little or no rain falls for a whole year. These 

 changes of climate necessitate great changes of residence 

 amongst the bird-population. Some birds feed principally 

 on grasshoppers, and migrate far and wide in search of large 

 erratic flights of these insects, Man has been described as a 

 cooking auimal, but Nordmann's Pratincole also much pre- 

 fers to eat its locusts cooked, and may be said to spend its 

 time in migrating in enormous flocks in search of roasted 

 grasshoppers. The grass in Natal is of such rank growth, 

 that large patches of veldt are burnt off every year to clear 

 the ground ; and then the Pratincole, the Lapwing ( Va- 

 nellus melanopterus) , and the Courser [Cursorius rufus) 

 are always on the look-out for these grass-fires, feeding 

 eagerly upon the scorched insects left in their wake. For 

 days together flights of Pratincoles pass over the country, 

 perhaps not to be seen again for weeks, or even months. 

 The flights of ants are also a source of great attraction to 

 some birds. For about a week early in March, a flock of 

 perhaps three hundred Eastern Red-legged Falcons {Falco 

 amurensis) frequented the farm in Natal where I. was stop- 

 ping. They spent the day hawking like Swallows at a great 

 height in the air, and at night they roosted all together on 

 the naked branches of some tall trees in the bush. It is 

 very remarkable that these birds are not known to breed 

 west of Irkutsk, their summer-quarters being apparently 

 confined to the valley of the Amoor in South-eastern Siberia, 

 though their winter-range extends from the eastern provinces 

 of the Cape Colony through India to China. 



The South-African Snipe {Scolopax cequatorialis) is only 

 known from South Africa, where it is a resident, breeding 

 all over the country in the vleys or marshes. In excep- 

 tionally dry seasons many of these vleys dry up, and the 

 ground becomes too hard to be probed by the soft bills of the 



