346 ' BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
wattle scarlet; bill black; iris yellow. ‘Total length, 4°9 inches; 
culmen, 0°6; wing, 2°55; tail, 2°2; tarsus, 0°8. 
Adult female.—Similar to the male, but more grey on the back ; 
the entire throat and upper breast dark rifle-green, the chin and a 
spot on the fore-part of the cheeks white. 
Fig. Sharpe, Ibis, 1873, pl. 4, figs. 2, 3. 
334, Baris cAPEnsis.* Cape Flycatcher. 
Platysteira pristinaria, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 143. 
The genus Batis can be generically separated from the genus 
Platysteira by the absence of any wattles round the eye. The 
present species is a very distinct one, being always recognisable by 
its rufous flanks, 
It is rather abundant in certain favourite localities in the neigh+ 
bourhood of Cape Town, and is generally distributed throughout 
the colony. I have shot it at the Knysna; and received it from 
Swellendam, Colesberg, and Beaufort. It frequents wooded places, 
generally hunting about thickets, high or low, for its insect prey, 
upon which it darts, when at rest on the under side of leaves 
and on the branches. I have occasionally seen it fly out and 
capture an insect on the wing; but this is rare. It generally 
makes known its presence by its curious note, which sounds as if 
two stones were ground together. Ihave seen the bird about 
at all seasons, but never could find a nest. Le Vaillant also 
was equally unsuccessful, but Mr. L. C. Layard detected them 
nesting at Grootevadersbosch, and procured a nest which had two 
* In my copy of Le Vaillant, this bird is marked, in Swainson’s own hand- 
writing, G. Zodus, Sw.; sub-genus Platysteira, Jardine. This copy formerly 
belonged to Mr. Swainson, but was wrecked in Table Bay, in the ship conveying 
his effects to New Zealand. Several of his books were recovered and bought up 
by a number of gentlemen who admired his talents, and he was informed that they 
would be forwarded to him if he would indicate his address. This he never cared 
to do, and the books remained here. Of them, I was kindly presented on my de- 
parture from the Cape by my most kind and valued friend Sir Thomas Maclear, 
one of the trustees of the S. A. Museum, with the following:—Temminck’s Planches 
Coloriées, Le Vaillant’s Oiseaux d’Afrique, the 1st Vol. of his Histoire Naturelle 
d'Oiseaux Nouveaux de ]’Amerique et des Indes, and Wilson’s American 
Ornithology. They contain many curious manuscript notes on the plates and 
margins, all bearing on his ideas of the affinity of species.—E. L. L. 
