21G Occasional Notes. 



In the Division : 



Secretary Birds, Small Hawks, Black-shonldored Kite, 

 Honey Guides, all Spreeuws (except Redwing), Crows 

 (except Black Crow), Vultures, Rollers, Orioles, Sparrows, 

 Herons, as well as all the birds protected within the limits o£ 

 the Municipality. 



(24) Notes from Pondoland. — On the 4th April, at the 

 mouth of the Umgazi River, I shot a fine specimen o£ 

 Ardea goliath, an adult ^ . It was rather larger than 

 Sclater's measurements, viz., length 50^', wing 24", tail 0^". 

 They are rare birds in these parts, and I have not previously 

 come across them, except in the above locality. This bird 

 was winged, and looked very vicious ; it made a deep 

 o-rowlins noise when I went to tackle it, but its bark w^as 

 Avorse than its bite. 



I have also lately shot two specimens of Podica petersi, 

 cJ and ? ; both these birds were in the same j)lumage, viz., 

 that ascribed to $ in " Stark & Sclater." I have never seen 

 them in the plumage ascribed to adult (J . Can there bo 

 two species ?— C. G. Davies, C.M.R. 



Lusikisiki, Pondoland, 

 20tli May, 1907. 



(2.5) The ' Field ' of June 15 contains the following para- 

 graph in the notes on the London Zoological Gardens : — 



"Two Buffalo Weaver Birds (Textor niger) from South 

 Africa have also been received. They are large and finch- 

 like in appearance, with black plumage, the feathers more 

 or less mottled with snowy-white bases, gregarious in habit, 

 breeding in colonies, and constructing many nests in the 

 same tree. The collective nests consist externally of an 

 immense mass of dry twigs, in whicli are from four to six 

 separate nests, in each of which are laid three or four eggs 

 resembling sparrows'' eggs, but much larger. Sir A. Smith 

 reported that these birds followed herds of buffalo, and fed 

 on the ticks infesting those animals : and this was confirmed 

 by Livingstone. In the first volume of his Stuhenvogely 



