('2 Mr. F. Tliomscii on 



wing-covorts, tlie same parts being black in Nordmann's 

 Pratincole" (this is G. melanoplera ; Sharpe also calls it 

 G. nordmanni) . I have a skin of a young female in my 

 possession which was obtained at Mabalstadt in the Rusten- 

 burg District. Head and throat down to the breast is 

 mottled brown on a lighter ground, here the colour goes oft: 

 into a greyish brown to pure white, on the underparts down 

 to the tail. The under tail-feathers are white with greyish- 

 brown terminals, which take up about half the feather. The 

 back is rusty brown with faint light bands on the outer end 

 of each feather. The wings are dark brown, nearly black ; 

 the tip of the first primary is white. There is no band round 

 the throat ; beak and legs are black, eye dark brown. 



Glareola fnsca has been found breeding in ?outh Africa 

 (Andersson's ' Birds of Damaraland,^ p. 264. ; lieichenow, 

 p. 145). I saw a few s})ecin;ens, in October 1905, close to 

 Lichtenburg, on the moist turfy places to the south of the 

 town. They evidently found enough food and wintered over. 

 In their flight and the way of taking locusts on the wing 

 they resemble Glareola inelano(/a.sfer. At the lead-mine in 

 the Marico District, I noticed a big swarm of these G. fnsca 

 flying low and settling in the road in front of me ; when I 

 approached them I found they had attacked a swarm of voet- 

 gangers, which soon disappeared into their stomachs. They 

 flew up when I passed, circling round, but settled as soon as 

 I had gone, to finish their meal. 



The voetgangers, who were moving fast to the east, stopped 

 when they were attacked, and tried to hide in the long grass 

 which bordered the road on both sides. Both these small 

 Locust Birds keep to the high-veld, and are seldom found in 

 the bush-veld and low-veld of the Transvaal. 



The Wattled Starling. {Creatopliora carunculata.) 

 The next bird which is often mistaken for the Small Locust 

 Bird is DilopJms carunculatus, commonly called the Wattled 

 Starling *, Andersson has reported it from Damaraland, but 

 does not say anything in connection with locusts. 



'* This bird is also called tlie Small Locust Rird bv the Africaiidei's, 



