Egg-CoUecth\g in the Bushveld. 5 



impression of reall}^ wild life is made shortly after passing 

 the Pyramids. On the outskirts of a stretch of thorn-bushes 

 a black-and-white Korhaan rises with its startling alarm- 

 notes, sounding something like " AVa^'^-krack, /(•/■«c'/i-krack, 

 Xy'a<'^-krack," rising slowly upwards with rapidly-beating 

 wirgs, and then hovering or slowly moving away, its alarm- 

 notes becomino: weaker and weaker until no lonoer audible. 

 After hovering thus for a time it descends slowly and settles 

 in a suitable place some distance from us. More often than 

 not the bird utters its cackling notes by fits and starts as it 

 rises, and when hovering keeps them up more uniformly but 

 less loudly. 



On the outskirts of this stretch of thorn-trees both the 

 common Black and Pied Crows breed annually in September 

 i\ni[ October ; the former chooses some isolated thorn-tree of 

 the common kind i^A. Jiorrida), and the latter the tangled 

 branches of a camel-thorn. Their eggs are well known and 

 need no re-description. 



Here also we find a few common species^ of which I need 

 only mention the liufous-nuped Lark {Mlrafra africana 

 transvaalens'is). This Lark is common even in the suburbs 

 of the city, but its eggs are seldom taken. It has a habit of 

 perching on the top of some conspicuous place, such as an 

 ant-heap, small tree, fencing post^ or even the roof of a house, 

 and from there pours out its song, which sounds something 

 like " Chiritu-eh," and at each repetition flicks out its wings. 

 Its nest is usually very cleverly hidden at the foot of a thick 

 tuft or tufts of grass, well concealed by a heavy hood of 

 grass-blades, under which a passage leads to the nest. The 

 eggs are in the Transvaal usually oidy two in number, rather 

 elongated in shape, and of a dark cream-coloured ground, 

 very profusely spotted, sometimes only speckled, with slate- 

 blue and various shades of brown, as a rule, forming a halo 

 round the thick end ; they measure, in a clutch taken at 

 Potchefstrooin on Gtli November, 1902, about 24 x 1() nun. 



Passing then from the patch of acacia thorn-trees into the 

 open veld, we meet with several more species which deserve 

 mention. 



