440 Mr. C. F. M. Swymicrton on ilie 



270. AcTOPHiLUS AFRiCANus. African Jacana. 

 Siiiguni : " Inkukumezara." 



Kh., P. I found these birds plentiful on the pools near 

 Chibabava during December^ as well as occasionally along 

 the margins of the river. They were mostly in pairs^ 

 running about over the old down-flattened sedge. They are 

 not easily flushed and, when on the wing, their flight, con- 

 sisting of a rapid flapping of the wings, is short (the longest 

 I saw was of nine birds together over a distance of eighty 

 or ninety yards), but by no means weak. So far irom 

 flying with their legs dangling, as I have seen described, 

 they hold them stiffly out behind in making these somewhat 

 ])roIonged flights ; the neck is curved back, with the head 

 resting down between the shoulders. In the rushes they 

 make quite a variety of loud noises, the commonest being a 

 " kroo^^-ing noise, which often alternates with or is uttered 

 at the same time as a clearer and pleasanter note — evidently 

 by way of a duet, as in the case of Dryoscopus yuttatus. A 

 male in my collection measured 10' 15 inches in the flesh 

 and two females 11*3 and 11"8 inches respectively. In all 

 the frcmtal shield and bill were pale blue, the point of the 

 bill paler — a dirtier blue ; the feet were light slaty grey, 

 the toes slightly paler, and the irides deep brown. The 

 stomachs contained beetles, fragments of aquatic molluscs, 

 a seed, and in each case a quantity of quartz-grit. 



271. LoBivANELLUs LATERALIS. Wattled Piover. 



Ilh., P. I obtained specimens of this, the common Plover 

 of our highlands, in the low veld on the Umtefu Hiver on 

 January 8th, 1907, noting it again between that river and 

 Chimbuya. It is an easy bird to shoot, the survivors each 

 time merely circling round and round, or settling again close 

 by, and seldom attempting to clear off. The stomach of one 

 of my specimens contained weevils and other beetles, and of 

 anotlter, a large larva, beetles, and, apparently, the remains 

 of a frog. 



272. RosTRATULA cAPENsis. Painted Snipe. 



P. On December 11th, 1906, I secured a male at some 



