Birds of Ga:; aland. 435 



Rivers, and at various points between the latter stream and 

 Cliibabava. In the last-named locality they were plentiful^ 

 both in cultivated ground and at the edges of pools, whither 

 they had evidently gone to drink. Bimba was another 

 locality at which I noted them, while at Arucate they were 

 again quite common. Four of these birds averaged 7'9 

 inches in the flesh, with a variation of from 7*65 to 8"12 

 inches. Out of five specimens in my collection the wing- 

 spots were green only in one, an adult female, not breeding, 

 shot on the Kurumadzi on August 4th. In the colour of its 

 bill &c. it exactly resembled the blue-spotted birds, of which 

 I shot three at about the same time in the same neighbour- 

 hood. I do not think that they can be regarded as specifically 

 distinct. The feet vary from light crimson to dull purple; 

 the bill is pale reddish brown or pale brown-madder, the base 

 blackish tinged with purple. 



256. Haplopelia larvata. Lemon-Dove. 

 Singuni: '' Igwanjiya.^'' 



Rh., P. This Dove appeared to be by no means scarce in 

 portions of the denser bush on the Kurumadzi in August aud 

 November. I have shot a breeding male as late as May 10th, 

 and a female with well-developed ovaries on June 14th — 

 almost mid-winter. Celtis- and Cro/ow- berries have been 

 present in most stomachs which I have examined, with, in 

 one case, the seeds of a large climbing Gouania and as many 

 as eleven small snail-shells. My specimens seem all to 

 belong to the Nyasaland form, which was separated by 

 Capt. Shelley as Haplopelia johnstoni ('Ibis,' 1893, p. 28, 

 pi. iii.). 



257. Francolinus seph.^na. Crested Francolin, 



Rh. Odendaal has recently sent me a specimen of this 

 bird, a cock obtained by him near Chirinda on July 9th, 

 1907. It measured 13'5 inches in the flesh; its bill was 

 " blackish, bare skin round eye pale blue-grey, a bare patch 

 above the ear brownish grey, irides dark brown, and feet 

 light vermilion.'^ 



