288 Mr. T. Ayres on the Ornithology of Transvaal. 



These pretty little Owls are by no means uncommon in 

 the Rustenburg district ; but they are not easily seen ; and on 

 a too near approach to the tree on which they are they fly 

 off very silently, and with the exact flight of a Thrush, Unless 

 you know the Owl you at once mistake it for a Thrush ; I lost 

 several in that way. Those I came across were solitary birds. 



The Drongo Shrikes imitate the loud notes of these Owls 

 very neatly, and have led me many a dance over rough 

 ground through the bush in pursuit, as I thought, of the Owl ; 

 but at last I found, to my disgust, that it was only the Drongo 

 amusing himself. 



[As Mr. Sharpe, at p. 211 of the second volume of his 

 ' Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum,^ remarks in 

 reference to this species, " Nothing is as yet precisely known 

 regarding the young plumage of this Owl," I may mention 

 that the Norwich Museum possesses two fledged nestlings, 

 procured in the Transvaal by Mr. Ayres some years since, 

 and both marked by him as males. These young birds difler 

 from the adults in the entire absence of white spots from the 

 upper surface of the head and neck, from the interscapular 

 feathers, and from the lesser and median wing-coverts ; they 

 show the white nuchal collar, but not the rufescent collar 

 which in adult birds adjoins the white, to which it forms a 

 kind of posterior edging ; in other respects the plumage of 

 these nestlings resembles that of the adult.] 



311. Caprimulgus LENTiGiNosus, Smith. Freckled Goat- 

 sucker. 



Male, Bustenburg, May 27th. Irides umber; bill dusky; 

 tarsi and feet dusky brown. 



Male, Bustenburg. July 13th. 



Female, Rustenburg, May 30th. Irides dark umber ; bill 

 dusky brown; tarsi and feet dingy brown. Stomach con- 

 tained beetles. 



Female. Bustenburg, June 13th. 



This is the only kind of Goatsucker Avhich I met with about 

 Bustenburg ; they frequent the edges of bushy hill-sides, 

 getting well under shelter during the day, and coming out to 



