124 Oecasioiial Azotes. 



nearly ready for flight. The nest was on a ledge in face of 

 a krantz. 



" June 10th. — South African Ruddy Waxbill (^Lagonosticta 

 ruhricatd). In the heart of a bunch of lily-leaves by the 

 edge of the bush I chanced upon a nest, at this late date, of 

 this species. As I laid hold of it four young ones barely 

 able to fly made their escape. It was loosely constructed of 

 coarse grass, and the inside for more than three parts towards 

 the dome was plastered with the birds' droppings. This was 

 so systematically done that not a chink was left for the wind 

 to enter opposite the inmates. 



" So far as I have seen about here, the great majority of 

 birds are finished with nesting before the end of the year. 



" Last Easter I handled a young Trogon which was 

 probably hatched out in January or February. During July 

 1904 — midwinter — I noticed a pair of Trogons here, and had 

 previously believed they entirely left us at the approach of 

 the cold months." 



(13) Dr. George Turner, Medical Officer of Plealth for 

 the Transvaal, left on his long-planned water expedition 

 down the Inkoomati River in the early part of June. The 

 Doctor will be absent some four or five months and expects 

 to bring back with him many ornithological specimens. 



(14) With the commencement of the 2nd Series of this 

 Journal an endeavour will be made to give, in addition to 

 original papers, more systematic information as to the progress 

 of ornithology in general, and of South African Ornithology 

 in particular, than has hitherto been the case. The Union 

 now regularly receives a variety of Ornithological periodical 

 publications, such as ' The Ibis,' ' The Emu,' ' The Auk," the 

 'Journal fiir Ornithologie,' the ' Ornithologische Monats- 

 berichte,' and the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 

 London,' &c., &c. 



Those papers which appear in these and similar journals 

 will be in future, wherever it is thought that the}- will be of 



