410 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
a pool of water, and about twenty feet above it. I sent a Caffre boy 
up the tree to saw the bough off. While he was thus engaged the 
old birds attacked him furiously, making repeated swoops and feints 
at his head, and uttering at the same time loud notes of anger.” 
Mr. T. E. Buckley writes:—“ Very common from the north of 
Pretoria into the Matabili country. This species is an early builder, 
as I found full-grown young ones ina nest on the 28th of November ; 
the nest was placed in the fork of a branch, and seemed very small 
for the young birds; the parents sat in the tree close to me while 
I was inspecting the nest. This bird sits on a branch of a tree, 
high up, on the look-out for insects, which it catches on the wing, 
and then returns to its perch. They are generally found in pairs.” 
This species measures: Total length, 9°5 inches; culmen, 0°95; 
wing, 5°55; tail, 4-1; tarsus, 0-9. The bill and feet are black, the 
iris red. 
Fig. Hemprich and Ehrenb. Symb. Phys. Aves, fol. s. pl. viii. 
fig. 3. 
393. Duicrurvs Lupwicn, Smith. Small Drongo. 
The smaller size and sqnare tail distinguish the present species 
from the foregoing. Sir A. Smith first observed it in the forests 
about Natal in 1832. They were very shy, and only one specimen 
was procured. In habits they seemed to resemble others of the 
family, perching on dead trees, and performing rapid evolutions in 
the air in search of food. 
Dr. Exton procured this scarce species at Kanye, in the Matabili 
country, and the specimens sent by him exceed the measurements 
given by Sir A. Smith. They are: length, 8’; wing, 4” 3'’’; tail, 4”. 
He writes:—‘ Smith’s statement as to its shyness is certainly 
correct, D. ludwigii being as shy and unobtrusive as B. assimilis 
is noisy and bold. In regard to the migration of birds, it is note- 
worthy that I have not observed D. ludwigii prior to the 26th 
December, on which date I saw four and obtained two specimens, and 
that in a part of the Veldt, with which I was well acquainted, and 
which I had constantly visited during the previous three months, so 
that I could scarcely have overlooked its presence had it been there. 
From the number of species collected here, which have hitherto only 
been obtained in Damara Land and Natal, I conclude this would be 
an excellent place for further research.” Mr. T. Ayres says that in 
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