BIRD LIFE ]N THE MIDLANDS OF XATAL. 



Bv [ames King. 



A good many years ago I was induced to buy a book, en- 

 titled " The Earth, as Modified by Fluman Action," by (ieorge 

 P. Marsh, an American author. All thnntgh it is a work full 

 of interest, and replete with many astounding facts, which 

 must appeal to even the casual reader, and go far to shew that 

 great changes, not only in a phyhical sense, but also to the habits 

 and distribution of the fauna and flora of the world, is due to 

 human action. The writer proposes in this short paper to con- 

 fine its scope to a short study of bird life in the midlands of 

 this Province, on observations extending over half a century. 

 Xatal is somewhat unique in some things, and among others in 

 having a climate which varies in less than too miles from the 

 subtropical coast to the almost British climate of the midlands 

 as far as temperature is concerned. These varied conditions are 

 not confined to climate alone, but in the one case wood and 

 thick jungle ; in the other, open or alpine countrw with timber 

 here and there in the kloofs, and on the hills, heav\- forest in 

 .some localities, but still, between the two, a clear interval of o])en 

 country. Lender such condititHis, birds whose habitat was in 

 the warmer and timbcr-])rotected parts of the Province, wcnild 

 not readily become denizens of the colder and opener parts of 

 the country unless the country itself had undergone some change 

 in its ])hvsical conditions. This, to ni}' mind, has l)een brought 

 about bv the gradual connecting uj) of one part of the country 

 with tlie other by tree-planting round homesteads, and more 

 especially by wattle plantations. This subject will l)e treated 

 under two heads, z'ic, the appearance and the disajipearance 

 of birds within certain localities from causes which, in the 

 oj)inion of the writer, have l)een brought al)out by human action, 

 cither directly or indirectly. 



1. Gaiiw Birds — Bustards. — At one time several kinds of 

 these l)ir(ls were found in considerable numbers, especially the 

 " .Stanley Bustard." Ni'otis caffra and Hctcrotctrcix vicjorsi 

 ( Korhaan ) 1)oth have practically disappeared, and as they are pre- 

 served birds, this cannot well be attributed to the work of the 

 sportsman, but probably to the grazing down of the open country, 

 e.\])osing the eggs and yoiuig birds to the ravages of other birds 

 of ])redatory habits, and also to the country being more tim- 

 bered than it used to be, as all 1)irds of this s])ecies alTect the 

 open country. 'I'he same causes have undoubtedly nuich to do 

 witli a gradual decline in the numbers of the redwing partridge 

 (Francoliuus levallianti). ([uite apart from the action of the 

 sportsman, a!sf> the crowned pkn-er (Stcpanilyx coronatus). 

 I'rom the same causes guinea fowl (Niinida coronata), from 

 being imknown in the early days in this district, has beccMiie (juite 

 numerous, and probably the luost so of any of the game birds 



