32 Mr. D. F. Gimilan on some 



in this Colony and in the O.R.C. a few coveys of birds have 

 taken up their abode close to such cover. They clearly 

 recognize the value afforded by the shelter and as soon as they 

 are flushed they fly straight back in among the trees. I 

 intend trying to find out whether they do not also nest on the 

 ground among the trees. They must surely soon learn that 

 they and their young are safe from fires and Hawks in the 

 plantations. As a rule, however, wild cuts and jackals also 

 take up their abode in these plantations. On each occasion 

 that I have done any shooting among the big plantations on 

 the farm " Maccoa Vloy " near Vereeniging in the Orange 

 River Colony, one or two wild cats have been driven out of 

 the plantations by the beaters and shot ; and on the farm 

 " Carlswald " near the Half Way House between Johannes- 

 burg and Pretoria, and on another farm close to the latter 

 farm, on two different occasions when driving the plantations 

 a red jackal was driven out and shot. 



When shooting early in August on a farm called " Sand- 

 fontein," near Vereeniging in the Orange River Colony, I 

 found a very large number of birds in big strong coveys in 

 and about the mealie-fields. A few weeks later the whole of 

 the country about there for miles was completely burnt out 

 and there was hardly sheltar left sufficient for a beetle, and 

 this is the regular practice every year. It would be interest- 

 ing to find out where those birds have gone to, as there is not 

 much unburnt veldt left in that neighbourhood. 



I now come to the so-called Pheasants, which are classed 

 among the genera " Francolinus " and " Fternistes." Of 

 these I have only shot two species, namely (a) Francolinus 

 capensis, the Cape Pheasant, and {h) Fternistes swainsoni, 

 Swainson's Pheasant. The former I saw for the first time on 

 the farm " Culm stock " in the district of Middelburg, Cape 

 Colony, the property of Mr. Charles Southey. This was, I 

 think, in the early eighties and late seventies of the last 

 century. Mr. Southey brought these birds from somewhere 

 in the neighbourhood of Capetown and endeavoured to 

 acclimatise them on his farm in the Karroo, tl inking that 



