Occasional jXolex. 45 



the niidJle of a thick forest. It was a cup-shaped structure, 

 built of fine roots and fibres and bits of decayed bark. 



The nest contained three eggs, but one of them obviously 

 belonged to another species of bird. Neither of the birds 

 belonging to the nest was to be seen, although I waited 

 hidden for a long time, so I decided to try and snare the 

 parent on the nest ; leaving the nest for about 1^ hours, I 

 returned to see the result, and found a female quadrivirgata 

 caught, and on a tree near by was undoubtedly a Cuculus 

 soUtarius, which I fired at but did not kill. I waited for a 

 long time hidden to try to get the male bird, but failed to 

 see him at all. 



Colour of eggs of E. quadricirgnta : a creamy white, 

 thickly blotched and splashed with red-brown, rather more 

 dense at the larger end. 



Size of eggs (2) : both measure |" x ^q". 



Colour of C. soUtarius egg (1) : an even pale terra-cotta. 



Size of C. soUtarius egg : ]-|" x |". 



XII. — Occasional Kotes. 



8. The Habits of the Great-tailed Widow Bird 

 (Diatropnira procne). — In the January 1910 No. of the 

 ' Avicultural Magazine ' Mr. W. E. Teschemaker gives us an 

 interesting article on the Giant Widow Bird. He discredits 

 the belief that this bird cannot fly well in wet or windy 

 weather. Mr. Claude G. Davies, a talented and energetic 

 Member of our Union, agrees in the main with the writer of 

 the above in a letter to the ' Avicultural Magazine ' (May 

 1910), but I would draw my friend's, as well as Mr. Tesche- 

 maker's, attention to the following : — I have seen the Saka- 

 bulas caught by the hand by little Basuto boys, in the 

 Maroka District of the Free State, during very heavy rains. 

 But, then, it rains so heavily in South Africa sometimes that 

 no ordinary canvas tent can resist it, leaking through the 

 cloth in all directions 1 It is also a common sight up here to 

 see a fine male bird struggling valiantly against the wind. 



