12 Mr. C. li. Tuvlor on Birds 



IV. — Notes on a Collection of Birds made in the Amsterdam 

 District upon the Transvaal- Swazieland Border between 

 the Months of June and October, 1906. By Claude H. 

 Taylor : assisted by J. A. Bucknill, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



The collection of which an account is given below was made 

 during a short stay of some five months upon the farm 

 Indhlovudwalilie (No. 2G0), situated in the extreme south- 

 eastern portion o£ the magisterial district of Ermelo in the 

 Transvaal. The farm is situated about 31° long, and about 

 26*9° lat. ; it is about 100 miles from the sea as the crow 

 flies, the nearest littoral being at the top of Tongaland. 



The farm Indhlovudwalilie (" Elephant's Rock " in the 

 Swazi language) lies about ten miles south-east of the dorp 

 of Amsterdam. Most of the birds detailed below were 

 actually obtained upon the farm grounds, which are about 

 6000 morgan in extent. The physical characteristics of the 

 farm are particularly favourable for the observation of 

 several typical classes of birds ; the land over which the 

 farm extends varies in altitude in a most remarkable degree. 



Part of the farm lies on the high plateau of that type of 

 ground which is regarded as typical of the mountainous 

 parts of Swazieland ; here it is healthy at all times of the 

 year and is over 5000 feet above sea-level, whilst the lowest 

 part of the farm is not less than 4000 feet. 



The ground runs down very abruptly into the valley of the 

 Compise River, which passes a perennial stream through 

 deeply cut gorges fed by numerous mountain streams 

 rising in the hills above throughout the watershed through 

 the southern part of the farm from west to east. 



The Compise River itself is not well wooded, though its 

 tributaries in the mountain krantzes are very thickly bushed. 

 On the main river the country is typically an open park-like 

 thorn-covered land. 



The higher })arts of the farm present the ordinary features 

 of the high veld ; the slopes leading down to the river are 



