of some South- African Birds. 19 



nest, which was placed in a hole in a tree situated in a deep 

 kloof; the eggs, two in number, were of a light sky-blue, 

 peculiarly roughened and quite unspotted. 



2. Petkonia petronella (Licht.) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. xii. 

 p. 297. 



I have found many nests of this species in the decayed 

 centres of the br^jjuches of the euphorbia-trees. The bird 

 makes a small opening in the bark, and on a deposit of a 

 few feathers and down in the hollow of the branch lays from 

 three to four dull brown unspotted eggs. It breeds in 

 companies, and the eggs are difficult to obtain, as the 

 branches of the euphorbias are high up above the ground, 

 and though heavy are brittle and rotten, so that the only 

 way of securing the eggs is to cut ofiP the branch at the base. 

 The eggs are very unlike those of the Common Sparrow 

 [Passer arciiatus). 



3. Emberiza flaviventris Bonn. etVieill. ; Sharpe, Cat. 

 B. xii. p. 499. 



I have never found the nest of this bird in a low bush or 

 on the ground, though I have seen many hundreds of them. 

 Those I have seen have usually been placed on the outer 

 branches of an acacia-tree, from 6 to 10 feet above the 

 ground. The nest is cup- shaped, about 2^ inches across, and 

 is composed of fine twigs and roots, and lined with finer 

 material of the same description. The eggs, four or five in 

 number, are never merely spotted, but are scrolled round the 

 obtuse end with purplish brown on a white ground. 



4. CiNNYRis vERREAUxi Smith; Gad. Cat. B. ix. p. 75. 

 This bird, like C. chalybeus, was very rare here until about 



the year 1895, when both became plentiful, and still remain 

 so. In this district it always builds in a place such as no 

 other Sun-bird would select, either in dense shade under 



the birds observed by him in the neighbourhood of that town. His 

 observations on the Cuckoos and Honey-guides seem to me particularly 

 interesting, and to be well worth recording, as so little is known of these 

 birds in South Africa. — W. L. Sclateb.] 



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