88 Mr. B. Alexander — Expedition 



catcli its passing prey^ returning again^ after tlie manner o£ 

 tlie Flycatchers, to the same point. 

 Five specimens were obtained. 



18. COLUMBA LIVIA. 



Found in a more or less domesticated state in many of the 

 valleys in which there are villages. 



19. COTURNIX COMMUNIS. 



We rarely met with the red-throated resident form of 

 Quail, C. capensis, and the only specimen of it obtained 

 could not be preserved. We often found migrants of the 

 Common Quail, and always in exactly the same spots. We 

 killed more than a dozen of these, and all were females, from 

 which we are inclined to think that the sexes of this species 

 on migration keep apart. Quails are not so numerous as 

 they used to be. The Governor-General, who is a keen 

 sportsman, told me that four years ago it was not an unusual 

 thing to go out and get thirty brace in a day. The present 

 scarcity is no doubt due to the lack of food, consequent on 

 there having been no rain for the last three years. 



20. NXTMIDA MELEAGRIS. 



The common Helmeted Guinea-fowl is abundant on the 

 island, and is to be met with on the plains as well as on the 

 high ground. We frequently saw large flocks, sometimes 

 numbering over a score, but they were very wild, and the 

 fact of there being no cover added to the difficulty in ap- 

 proaching them. While the Flying Squadron was at Praya 

 the Governor-General organized a '' shoot " for the officers, 

 and, although beaters were employed, only five fowls were 

 bagged throughout the day. At night the Guinea-fowls 

 come down from the high ground into the valleys and roost 

 in the acacia-trees. It is then that the natives go after them 

 and knock them over with sticks. 



21. CURSORIUS GALLICUS. 



Only in one locality did we come across this Courser, and 

 that was on a small, loose, stony tableland close to the sea, and 

 not far from Praya. The flock was not a large one, consisting 



