244 jNH-. Guy A. K. jNIai-sliall on 



102. MiRAFRA AFiucANA. (Rufous-iiapcd Lark.) 

 Generally distributed, though nowliere plentiful, often 

 frequenting the vicinity of houses in the town. It is a 

 solitary bird, fond of settling on tbe top of some low 

 hush, where it will remain for a long time, uttering its 

 three- note call with a perseverance worthy of a better cause. 

 When disturbed it goes off with a low fluttering flight, 

 either alighting on the next convenient bush or dropping 

 to the ground, when it runs like a rat. One bird will some- 

 times frequent the same post for many weeks. 



103. Upupa africana. (African Hoopoe.) 



This bird is not uncommon in the bush round Salisbury. 

 It is generally solitary in its habits, but during the early 

 spring it congregates into small flocks of five or six. It feeds 

 chiefly on the ground, but also searches tree-trunks for 

 insects ; the stomachs examined contained grasshoppers and 

 beetles. 



104. Irrisor viRiDis. (Red-billed Wood-hoopoe.) 

 Though very scarce in the neighbourhood of the town, 



these handsome birds are fairly plentiful in the larger bush 

 near the Hanyani and Umfuli rivers, occurring in flocks of 

 six to twelve, and ever industriously searching the tree-trunks 

 for insects, &c., in the crevices of the bark. I first made 

 the acquaintance of these Wood-hoopoes in the dense and 

 desolate bush- country along the Brak river in the Northern 

 Transvaal, when I had managed to lose myself in the bush — a 

 by no means difiicult performance in those parts — and owing 

 to its being a very cloudy day I could not obtain any bearings. 

 Thinking that 1 might have been walking in a circle, and 

 misht still be somewhere near our outspan, I endeavoured to 

 shout, as I had no gun wherewith to signal ; but every time 

 I attempted to raise my voice a troop of these wretched 

 birds would promptly join in and drown it. The exasperating 

 eflect of this on a man who has just realized that he has 

 hopelessly lost his bearings in an almost waterless country 

 may be more easily imagined than described, and I have 

 never quite forgiven the ''Kackela^' for that mrmvais <piari 

 d'heure. 



