36 Occasional Notes. 



effected by two convalescent Troopers of the Imperial 

 Yeomanry (Messrs. Seimnnd and Grant). 



(6) In the former number of ' The Ibis ' appears an in- 

 teresting article by the present President of our Union on 

 " Saldanha Bay and its Bird-Islands." The jiidification of 

 many of the littoral species is described, and interesting 

 tables relating to the collection of the guano and Penguin 

 eggs from the various islands are shown. 



(7) The April number of 'The Ibis' (1904) contains a 

 lengthy paper on a collection of birds from the neighbourhood 

 of Port St. John, in Pondoland, by Mr. Gr. C. Shortridge, 

 with preface and notes by Mr. W. L. Sclater. It describes 

 198 species, seven of which were new to Cape Colony. 



(8) In the April number of the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie ' 

 appears an exhaustive article entitled " Contributions to the 

 Avifauna of North-east Africa, with special reference to 

 the Zoogeography,^' by Carlo " Freiherr " von Erlanger. 

 This paper is chiefly of interest, from a South African point 

 of view, owing to the attention paid by the author to the 

 variations which occur in the plumage of Helotarsus ecau- 

 datiis (Batelcur) on comparison of specimens taken by him 

 in North-east Africa with those from South Africa. 



(9) The October number of 'The Ibis' (1904) contains 

 an article by Major S. R. Clarke, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., entitled 

 " Field Notes on Birds obtained or observed at Bloemfon- 

 tein, O.R.C., and at Ingogo, Natal, in 1901 and 1902.'' 

 176 species are referred to, and he records from Natal, for 

 tlie first time, Buteo desertorum (Steppe Buzzard). 



(10) The October numljer (1904) of ' The Emu ' contains 

 a lengthy account of the foundation of the South African 

 Ornithologists' Union, and proffers its congratulations upon 

 its formation. 



