RAMBLES IN BRITISH BECHUANALAND 47 



lands, so vigorous and bracing during the dry winter 

 months, was conspicuous by its absence, and the 

 game bagged that day was well and hardly earned. 

 I marched down the dry watercourse for some miles 

 with my companion and a dog, hoping to come 

 across guinea-fowl. In this we were disappointed. 

 We occasionally picked up an Orange River francolin, 

 or a black and white koorhaan {Otis afroides), and 

 one bush koorhaan fell to my gun; but sport on 

 the whole was disappointing. 



Speaking of bustard, I should have mentioned 

 that one of the koorhaan shot the evening before 

 rather puzzled me. It struck me, in the brief 

 cursory examination I had of it, as bearing a 

 strong resemblance to the Senegal bustard {Otis 

 senegalensis) described in Layard and Sharpens Birds 

 of South Africa. There seemed a good deal of the 

 Vaal koorhaan about it, and yet to me there were 

 differences, especially in the bluish colouring about 

 the throat and breast. I quite meant to have 

 saved the skin of this bird, but, unfortunately, before 

 I returned to camp, it had been plucked, cut open, 

 and spatchcocked. I have the strongest impression 

 that this was a scarce koorhaan, and most probably 

 the Senegal bustard. 



The African bustards, and, indeed, all the game 

 birds of the interior, are in my opinion by no means 

 clearly or fully known at present. In a recent 



