78 Mr. C. G. Davles — Ihouhm N'otes on 



the best of my knowledge^ C. galliciishas never been recorded 

 from south of the Sahara. Secondly, that MM. Verreaux 

 and Des Murs, writing on the genus Circaetus in ' The Ibis ' 

 for 1862, page 209, while treating of C. gallicus, say : " One 

 of us has had in his possession, at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 young specimens of C. thoracicus (pectoralis), ^Yhich have 

 moulted under our eyes, and which, Avliile altogether 

 resembling C. (/alUctts, have finished, two years later, by 

 assuming the plumage of C. thoracicus [pectoraUs)y 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, in the article mentioned above, draws 

 attention to the above remarks, and adds : — " The most perfect 

 example of this plumage which has come under my eyes is 

 exhibited in a S. African specimen preserved in the Liver- 

 pool Museum, which might almost pass for an example of 

 C. gallicus." 



PoDiCA PETERSi. Pctcrs's Finfoot. 



Some of Mr. Claude Grant's field-notes on this bird are so 

 much at variance with my observations that I think a few 

 comments are necessar}'. T have had a good deal of ex- 

 perience of this bird in E. Pondoland, where it is not un- 

 common, and where I must have seen a considerable number, 

 and shot at least a dozen, and so far I have never seen one 

 either dive or fly, and yet Mr. Grant says that it does both. 

 I will take the subject of diving first. Near my camp on the 

 Umtamvuna River there was a large deep pool surrounded 

 with reeds, where I often spent an afternooi\ sitting on the 

 bank fishing ; this pool was also the homo of a Finfoot, 

 which I saw almost daily, and as it was by no moans shy I 

 had good o})portunities of watching its habits. It often swam 

 about quite close to me, feeding on insocts in the water and 

 on the reeds, and T once saw it Jump right out of tlio 

 water to reach a gra>shopj»or sitting on a reed-stem overhead; 

 it did not swim particularly deep, and looked much like a 

 young Muscovy Duck while swimming ; but 1 never once saw 

 this bird dive. ]\rost <living birds if suddenly surprised will 

 dive ; but I have often come suddenly onto a Finfoot and 

 it has injuiediately swam or fla])pod along the surface of the 



