Notes from the Transvaal. 17 



may mention tliat the parent bird flew off the nest when 

 I came up, and I had a good view of her, so that I am sure 

 of the identity. 



On the 15th September I found two eggs of a Wader 

 (Totanus?)^ on the shore of our dam. They were about 

 15 yards from the water's edge, in an open spot, and were 

 deposited in a hollow in the dry mud, wliich was heaped up 

 a little all round, and contained a few bits of grass &c. 

 The eggs were nearly embedded in the grass and small mud- 

 clots, and were so admirably concealed by virtue of their 

 wonderful " protective resemblance/^ that I had to look 

 again for a few seconds every time I took my eyes off the 

 spot. They were of a dark cream-colour, thickly spotted, 

 blotched, and streaked with various shades (light and dark) 

 of brown and slaty brown. Axis 30 mm., diameter 23 mm. 



I noticed that the parent bird approached the eggs from 

 the land side, and not from the water : it would have been 

 much more easily detected had it come from the latter 

 direction, whereas its approach from the former was covered 

 by the weeds. The parent birds also possess the advantage 

 of a wonderfully protective coloration. 



On the 20th October, 1899, I shot a splendid male speci- 

 men oi Nectarinia famosa (Lay. & Sharpe, B. S. A. p. 306) 

 in the Transvaal, a rare bird here — at least this is the 

 opinion of writers on South-African birds. Dr. Holub, in 

 his ' Beitrage zur Ornithologie Siid-Afrikas,' says nothing 



* [Mr. Haagner sends us the following description of the Totamis, 

 which we are not able to determine : — 



" Head and hind-neck brownish grey ; mantle and upper and lower 

 back darker brown-grey, the feathers with a dark streak down the middle 

 and edged with a lighter shade ; coverts brownish grey, shot with light 

 green (this is, however, only visible in certain lights) ; secondary and 

 median coverts tipped with white, webs also bordered with white ; the 

 two (juter primary-coverts reddish brown ; throat, abdomen, and under 

 tail-coverts white ; breast and fore-neck grey ; upper tail-coverts partly 

 white, and a few reddish with black markings. Length 10|^" ; wing 

 (measured in a straight line from base to tip and along the front edge, 

 when stretched out) S^" ; tail 2^" ; culmeu liV". Irides carmine ; bill 

 black ; legs dirty yellow." — Edd,] 



SER. VIII. VOL. I. C 



