Mr. H. Seebohm on the Birds of Natal ^c. 345 



Snipe in search of food. The Snipe are consequently obliged 

 to migrate for a season to vleys where there is still abundance 

 of moisture, and thus it often happens that large bags are 

 obtained where a week before only a few scattered pairs 

 could be found. 



One of the most conspicuous birds in Natal^ during the 

 month I spent in the country, was the White Stork [Ciconia 

 alba). In riding across the veldt it was seldom that one or 

 two pairs were not visible, and sometimes large flocks col- 

 lected together to roost on the bare branches of some vener- 

 able tree in the bush. No bird could be better known to the 

 colonists, amongst whom it is familiar as the Great Locust- 

 bird. But the only instance that I heard (and I made many 

 inquiries) of the breeding of this bird in Natal, was that of 

 a pair which once bred on the ground nearly twenty years 

 ago. Even supposing the identification of the species to 

 have been correct, the fact of the nest being on the ground 

 in a country where houses, rocks, and trees abound is pre- 

 sumptive evidence that the bird which made the nest was 

 unable to fly, and persuaded its mate to remain with it in 

 their winter-quarters. 



Few points connected with the ornithology of South 

 Africa have given rise to greater difi'erence of opinion than 

 the various plumages which characterize the Mountain Chats 

 [Saxicola monticola and Saxicola leucomelana) . These 

 birds are by no means uncommon on the highlands of Natal, 

 wherever the ground is strewn with rocky boulders. So far 

 as I was able to ascertain, I think we may accept the state- 

 ment of Messrs. Butler, Feilden, and Reid {' Ibis,' 1883, 

 p. 332), that the females are, like the birds of the year of 

 both sexes, brown all over, except the rump, tail, and tail- 

 coverts, which vary very little either with age or sex. This, 

 of course, implies that some of the grey birds in the National 

 Collection, obtained by Andersson in Damara-Land, are 

 incorrectly sexed. One more statement will probably be 

 admitted by everyone who has watched these birds amongst 

 the rocks, namely, that whilst the females vary little or not 

 at all, the males difi'er from each other in a remarkable man- 



