the Trans-Vaul Territonj. 301 



this time; and few dogs care to interfere with them. On my 

 first arrival in Potchefstroom I was informed by the Dutch that 

 a very large snake inhabited the surrounding swamps, that many 

 persons had seen it, all of whom had been alarmed, and that at 

 night during the summer months it made a loud bellowing sort 

 of noise, which I should surely hear. I at once determined to 

 overcome the monster and immortalize myself. The noise I 

 certainly heard at night and also in the daytime, and that when 

 I was often a mile or two distant from the swamps. 1 gave my 

 friends the bullfrogs credit for it ; but the Dutch laughed me to 

 scorn for such an idea. I tried, gun in hand, several times to 

 approach the spot ; but sometimes the place amongst the reeds 

 was inaccessible, at others the reeds so thick that I made so 

 much noise in pushing my way through them as to frighten my 

 enemy, who immediately left off making the unearthly noise in 

 which he appeared to delight. One day, however, I heard it in 

 a comparatively open swamp, and on walking in a direct line to 

 the spot the noise ceased and a Bittern flew up and alighted 

 again within three hundred yards. As I could see nothing 

 further, I waited and listened for the noise to recommence, con- 

 sidering that the snake^s head might perhaps be under water, as 

 I was standing up to my middle in it amongst the rushes. 

 After waiting patiently for nearly half an hour, and watching 

 carefully, I heard the noise begin again from the direction in 

 which the Bittern had flown. Proceeding thither, I again 

 flushed the bird ; the noise ceased. A third time the same thing 

 happened ; so without doubt the Bittern makes this extraordinary 

 ■ noise, which may be regarded as a love-note, and that apparently 

 by drawing in the air and forcing it out again. The skin of the 

 neck being exceedingly loose, the bird probably has the power of 

 inflating it. Tadpoles and small frogs form its principal diet. 



Iris brownish-yellow ; bill greenish, brown on the ridge ; tarsi 

 and feet greenish-yellow. 



[The Cape Bittern only differs from the European Bittern 

 [Botaurus stellaris) in its smaller size ; it is the " Ardea stellaris 

 capensis" of Professor Schlegel (Museum des Pays-Bas, Aj'dea, 

 p. 48) ; and as the comparative measurements of the two races are 

 given by him, it is not needful here to repeat them. — J. H. G.] 



