Three Months on the Coast of South Africa. 51) 



9. Glaucidium siju. Cuban Owlet. 

 Gtaucidium siju, Ridgw. /. c. p. 105. 

 Hab. Cuba. 

 E Mus. Brit. — ad. Cuba. 



III. — Three Months on the Coast of South Africa. 

 By Captain G. E. Shelley, F.R.G.S. 



I LEFT England for the Cape of Good Hope the 15th De- 

 cember, 1873, on board the ' Asiatic,' one of the Union 

 Company's steamships. The only land we sighted during the 

 twenty-seven days' passage was Grand Canary, Teneriffe, and 

 St. Helena. At the latter place we arrived on the morning of 

 the 4th of January ; and most welcome was the chance of feel- 

 ing oneself again on terra firma. Not wishing to lose the 

 opportunity of adding a new species to my collection, I took my 

 gun on shore ; and during the time I was visiting Napoleon's 

 tomb and the house in which he lived at '' Longwood " I shot 

 by the way three specimens of JEgialitis sanctce-helence, Hart- 

 ing, the only indigenous bird, and several of the small Ground- 

 Dove {Geopelia tranquilla) , introduced from AustraHa, and of 

 Estrelda astrild, a native of the African continent, both of 

 which species are thoroughly acclimatized to the island and 

 are very abundant. 



The steep road which leads out of the town towards Long- 

 wood threads the sides of rather a picturesque valley, with 

 a small waterfall at the end trickling down over dark vol- 

 canic rocks. On turning out of this valley, and close to the 

 first wayside canteen, the country opens out ; and the scenery 

 becomes very wild as the road passes into the fir- woods. Here 

 I quitted it for a small barren plateau to the left, where I 

 found some seven or eight specimens of ^gialitis sanctce- 

 helena, the " Wire-bird," the only ones I saw on the island, — 

 a strange place for an u^gialitis, as there is no water near, 

 and the rocky ground is parched and barren. All the speci- 

 mens I procured were moulting. 



On the 12th of January we reached Table Bay. The first 

 sight of the Cape is really fine ; the flat-topped "Table Moun- 



