SOUTH AFRICAN COURSERS 83 



game, such as gemsbok, hartebeest, ostrich, and 

 occasionally koodoo, still resort to lick the salt 

 limestone. In the afternoon, before outspanning, my 

 friend Dove shot a violet-winged courser, the first we 

 had ever seen. It was in splendid plumage, and we 

 could not sufficiently admire this beautiful bird and 

 the wonderful iridescence of its violet-tipped wings. 

 Next morning, in pottering about after Orange Kiver 

 francolins (" partridges "), bush quail, and other food 

 for the pot, we put up more of these birds. My 

 friend Mackay and I each shot a specimen or two. 

 We afterwards found a few nearer Morokweng. 

 Whenever we met with these coursers they lay 

 extremely close, and got up almost under our feet. 

 They seem unwilling to fly far, and go down at no 

 great distance, when, after running some little way 

 with much swiftness, they again lie with extraordinary 

 tenacity. Our pointers found them and put them 

 up just as they did partridges and bustards. We 

 skinned our captures carefully ; the flesh, which was 

 excellent eating, went into the stew-pot with other 

 game. From May till the following year I never 

 saw these coursers again, although wandering in suit- 

 able country for them in many parts of Bechuana- 

 land, the Kalahari, and Ngamiland. It is most 

 probable, I think, that they only make a stay of a 

 few months in South Africa, and then migrate else- 

 where to the northward. 



