Miijvatioii of BlnLs in Svufh Africa. 15 



of even the niiiTies of the conimoner birds which they see every 

 day around them. This, I fear, it will take many years to 

 remed}', l)iit doubtless it will come with increase of population 

 and civilization, and also if the study of Natural History bo 

 taken up in the South African schools to a greater extent 

 than it has hitherto been. 



For the purpose of this paper I have taken the list of birds 

 contained in the recently published three volumes of the 

 ' Fauna of South Africa,' written by the late Dr. Stark and 

 myself, together with those in the fourth volume shortly to 

 be issued. 



The number of species described in the four volumes is 

 814, which includes all those hitherto found in Africa south 

 of the Zambesi and in tiie neighbouring seas. I have 

 divided them into five categories as follows : — Residents 

 numbering- 731, Northern Migrants numbering 7(1, African 

 Migrants numbering 21, Partial Migrants numbering 50, and 

 Island Breeders numbering 3(j ; these groufjs I now propose 

 to shortly discuss in turn. 



Of the Residents it is not necessary to say very much ; it 

 is highly probable that a large proportion of these when 

 carefully observed will be found to fall under tlie heading of 

 Partial Migrants. Even in England many birds, such as 

 the Robin and the Skylark, formerly supposed to be residents, 

 have been found of late to be largely migratory. Under 

 this category, too, have been placed a number of rare birds 

 and wanderers which have been noticed in South Africa on 

 only two or three occasions, and about the movements antl 

 habits of which we are at present entirely ignorant. 



The most interesting of the migratory birds in South 

 Africa are without doubt those included under the heading 

 of the Northern Migrants, which number 76. These are, 

 most of them, familiar European and English birds, which 

 make a double journey of over 4000 miles every year from 

 the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern. The bulk of 

 them reach South Africa in October and leave again in 

 March and April. The Golden Oriole, four Yellow Wag- 

 tails, the Red-backed Shrike, the Willow AVren, the Spotted 



