140 Mr. E. C. Chubb on the Birds of 



These experiments were conducted at the Regent Street 

 Polytechnic Biological Laboratory ; and I have to thank 

 Mr. G. P. Mudge for many kind hints as to my methods of 

 workinor. 



YI. — On the Birds of Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia. By 

 E. C. Chubb, A.ssistant Curator, Rhodesia Museum, 

 Bulawayo. 



The material upon which tliis paper is based has mostly been 

 collected by myself and otiiers for the Rhodesia Museum 

 during the last eighteen months, although it has been 

 thought worth while, for the sake of completeness, to include 

 in it a number of birds belonging to Mr. R. Douglas, which 

 he has allowed me to examine. These are distinguished by 

 an asterisk. 



Bulawayo is situated on the water-parting which divides 

 the Limpopo from the Zambesi River basin, at an altitude of 

 1450 feet above the sea. The geological formation upon 

 which it rests is schist, while theie are outcrops of granite 

 at several places within three or four miles of the town, e.(j. 

 at the Hillside Kopjes and at the Waterworks Reservoirs. 



Encircling the town for a radius of about three miles is 

 the " Commonage," where most of the specimens have been 

 collected, but a number of birds and nests have been obtained 

 at Belle Vue Farm, where I am now living, some four miles 

 south of Bulawayo. The Commonage consists of fairly 

 thick Bush, composed largely of Acacia horrida and other 

 leguminous trees, and several species of Comhretnm, while 

 Copaifera mopani is common on the granite soil. These 

 trees are all small, averaging in height from eight to ten 

 feet ; the absence of large trees being due to the fact ihat 

 fifteen years ago, prior to the occupation of the country by 

 the White Man, the Commonage was- under cultivation by 

 the natives belonging to the chief Lobengula's kraal, the 

 site of the kraal being now occupied by the present town. 



The annual rainfall of Bulawavo ranges between 20 and 



