Birds of Gazaland. 431 



P, Hadadas were very common on the river at Cliibabava 

 from November to January, and might often be seen on 

 dead branches overhanging the water. Choruses of their 

 bleating Trumpeter- Hornbill-like cries, which the native 

 name well imitates, were to be heard at all times of the day. 

 I again found them near Boka. 



246. Sarcidiornis melanonota. Knob-billed Duck. 

 Singuni : '^ Isekwi." 



On December 2nd I came on a pair of these birds feeding 

 in a pool near Chibabava in company with Dendrocycna 

 viduata, Herodias alba, and Ardea purpurea. 



247. Dendrocycna viduata. White-faced Duck. 

 Singuni : " Inyakakene." 



P. I found these Ducks exceedingly plentiful in 

 December on the pools between Chibabava and Mangunde, 

 in pairs or in parties of from half a dozen upwards. In 

 one case two flocks, numbering twenty-five and forty-nine 

 respectively, rose from within a few yards of each other, and 

 on some occasions (a shot fired at some distance being 

 enough to flush them) there must have been from a hundred 

 to a hundred and fifty of these Ducks in the air together. 

 They have two whistling notes, or more rarely three, frequently 

 uttered by the whole flock together, as it flies along, some- 

 times in more or less wedge-formation, sometimes not. They 

 were easy to shoot, for when flushed they would circle back- 

 wards and forwards two or three times over the swamp, 

 and seldom went more than a few hundred yards before 

 again descending. A breeding female, one of a pair shot on 

 December 2nd, measured 18-55 inches in the flesh. The tarsi, 

 feet, and webs in all my specimens were light bright blue- 

 grey, and the nails, the transverse scutes of the toes, and the 

 scales covering the front of the tarsus black, the divisions 

 between the scales remaining pale blue-grey; the irides were 

 deep burnt sienna. One of the stomachs examined con- 

 tained a small larva and grit, and in both crop and stomach 

 were large quantities of a small black seed. 



