Short Notices. 129 



Fig. 120. y^Egialitis pecuaria (Kittlitz's Sand Plover). 

 Adults and nestlings. 



Fig. 160. JnckussFengmns (SpJieniscusdemersus)onDjev^s 

 Island off the coast o£ the Caledon division, Cape 

 Colony. 



Fig. 162. Hen Ostrich sitting on nest. 



Fig. 163. Nest of an Ostrich with the eggs just hatched 

 out and the cock bird in the distance. 



It is impossible within the limits of a short review to 

 refer to the text of the work in much detail ; our veteran 

 Ornithologist, Mr. T. Ayres — who is still with us, — looms 

 large throughout its pages. A few notes which struck the 

 writer of this review upon reading through the volume may 

 be, perhaps, inserted. 



The claim of the Common Cormorant of Europe (^Pliala- 

 crocora.v carlo) to inclusion in the avifauna of South Africa 

 is finally rejected (p. 3); about 5000 tons of guano, composed 

 chiefly of the excrement of the Trek Duiker {Phalacrocoraa; 

 capensis) and Malagash [Sula capensis), is collected annually 

 on the islands off the Cape coasts, where both these species 

 breed in enormous numbers, and is sold to the farmers at 

 about cost price (pp. 7, 20, and 21). The claim of Pliaethon 

 ruhricanda (Red-tailed Tropic Bird) for inclusion in the list 

 rests practically solely on the discovery of an apparently 

 freshly shed red tail-feather on the beach at Port Elizabeth 

 (p. 24). The Marabou {Leptoptihis crumeniferus), a rare 

 bird in South Africa, was met with in some numbers by 

 Mr. Ayres near Pretoria just after the first Boer war, the 

 birds coming to feed on the dead mules and cattle lying about 

 the camp (p. 48). 



The writer of this review may here state that although he 

 was present at the close of the second Boer war in Pretoria, 

 and although one or two places in the neighbourhood, such as 

 Eloff's farm and a station outside the big Repatriation Camp 

 not far from Skinner's Court, were crowded with dead horses 

 and mules, the carcases of which were conveyed daily to 

 particular spots on the veld — veritable Golgothas — where 



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