12 ]\Ir. A. Roberts — OrnlllioJoqical Xotes 



rounder shape; there are also, as a rule, two eggs to the 

 clutch. 



7. tEgialitis yaria. (Kittlitz's Sand Plover.) 

 These Plover are tairlj common here on bare patches of 

 veld near water. At Potchefstrooin they are also fairly 

 common, and in certain favourite localities, during August 

 and September, their eggs could nearly always be found by 

 watching for them to get up off their nests. On one occasion 

 I witnessed a pretty little comedy which is worth relating. 

 Whilst cycling along an old road, one of these Plover stood 

 up over her eggs right in the track of the bicycle, and with 

 her mouth open and waving wings bravely tried to scare me 

 away. I rode up opposite the nest and, dismounting, stood 

 over it not more than two feet away ; but she still would not 

 budge from her post. I wished I had had the powers of an 

 artist so as to have painted the pretty little picture which she 

 presented as she stood there wavering between fear and her 

 firm resolve to defend her eggs. Finally, finding she could 

 not drive me away, she vainly tried to distract my attention 

 from the nest and to lead me off by suddenly collapsing and 

 fiuLtering away, screaming as though severely wounded ; 

 she was shortly afterwards joined by her anxious mate. The 

 nest was a hollow in a sand-heap, and the two eggs would 

 in the ordinary course have been covered over with sand 

 before being left. 



8. Aquila rapax. (Tawny Eagle.) 



A pair of these Eagles were nearly always to be seen in 

 the neighbourhood of a patch of thorn scrub, about 2i miles 

 to the west of VVolmaransstad. They usually perched on 

 trees, from which they could watch every movement in the 

 surrounding veld. During April they started to construct 

 a nest on the top of a"kameel doom,'' about fifteen feet 

 from the ground. The nest was completed and two eggs 

 were laid about the end of May. One of these eggs is white, 

 slightly discoloured, without spots, measuring '2''60 by 2'15 

 inches, and the other pure white, spotted with rusty red, 

 mcasurinii" 2'75 by 2"2 inches. 



