wa TAS ee. ee 
430 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
sometimes faintly spotted with brown at obtuse end: axis, 1'’ 2’; 
diam,, 10’’’. 
They also breed in the sides of the gullies so frequent in the 
surface of the country, and called slwitjes, digging holes in the clay. 
When walking about over the newly-ploughed land, hunting for 
grubs, they have much the manner of the European Starling, and 
would be immediately recognized by even a casual observer as being 
allied to them. 
Victorin does not appear to have met with it at the Knysna, but 
mentions it as occurring in the Karroo. Mr. Rickard says it is 
common at Port Elizabeth, but is not found at Hast London. 
Captain Shelley found it in Mossel Bay, and in Natal Mr. T. B. 
Buckley procured it at Newcastle. Mr. Ayres fell in with the 
species on the Vaal River, and also states that he found them on the 
Bushman’s River in Upper Natal, and in increasing numbers (when 
the locality was favourable) all along the road to Potchefstroom in 
the Transvaal, where they are very plentiful. 
Mr. Ayres gives the following note on the species in Natal :— 
“These birds excavate holes for their nests in the perpendicular 
banks of the Vaal River, two or three feet from the surface of the 
ground, and from three to four feet deep, horizontally. The same 
holes appear to be used for successive seasons, being merely pierced 
further each year. The nest is composed of coarse grass, lined with 
wool, hair, and feathers ; the eggs are from two to six in number.” 
General colour, brown, changing into shot-green on the neck and 
tail; lower part of belly and vent, white; base of lower mandible, 
yellow. Length, 11”; wing, 6”; tail, 4” 2”. 
Fig. Le Vaill. Ois. d’Afr. pl. 88. 
413. Amyprus carrrr (L.) Pale-winged Glossy Starling. 
Juida fulvipennis, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 178. 
Le Vaillant states that this species inhabits the Great and Little 
Namaqua Lands. We have received specimens from Colesberg and 
the Free State, and Mr. Atmore found it at Aasvogelberg in the 
Prince Albert division. We also found it plentiful at Nel’s Poort, 
flying about in small parties of from five to fifteen or twenty in 
number. Although A. morio likewise inhabits that neighbourhood 
in smaller numbers, I never found the two species mixed together 
in one flock, and they can at once be distinguished by the square 
