MACRONYX CAPENSIS. 531 
Mr. W. Atmore declares that it is never found on Karroo soil, and 
we do not remember noticing it near Beaufort: certainly it is 
not recorded in Victorin’s collections from the Karroo, though 
he appears to have met with it plentifully in the Knysna district. 
Mr. Rickard tells us that it is very abundant, both at Hast London 
and Port Elizabeth, and Mr. T. C. Atmore sends it from Hland’s 
Post. In Natal it occurs along with WM. striolatus, and Mr. Fellowes 
found it abundant in Zulu Land. The late Mr. Frank Oates 
procured it at Pretoria and between Ladysmith and Newcastle. 
Mr. T. EK. Buckley writes: “ Very common through Natal and the 
‘Hight Veldt’ part of the Transvaal. They are found singly or in 
pairs, and fly with several very rapid beats of the wing together, 
uttering their call-note all the time, which is exactly what Layard 
calls ‘mewing.”?” Majors Butler and Feilden and Captain Savile 
Reid relate that in Natal it is universally distributed and extremely 
common. “ Besides its peculiar ‘mewing’ cry, it has a rapid, 
spasmodic, but not unpleasant song, which it utters only when on 
the wing, and which is apparently confined to the breeding season. 
Never seen in flocks.” During Mr. Jameson’s expedition to the 
Mashoona country, the present species was said to have occurred as 
far north as the Inshlangeen River. 
In its habits it resembles the Sky-lark, excepting that it does not 
soar, sing’, or congregate in flocks. Instead of perching on clods of 
earth,—such luxuries not beimg common in this land,—it mounts a 
white-ant’s heap, and keeps a look-out for its enemies from that 
eminence. It is usually found in pairs, and when one flies off, 
uttering its peculiar “mewing” cry, the other is sure to follow. It 
often perches on low bushes, amid which it runs with great rapidity, 
leaving a scent so strong that even the best pointers will “ draw” 
after it for a considerable distance. 
The flesh of this bird is delicious eating,—and on the high plateau 
about the Knysna, where they abound, a good shot might secure a 
sumptuous dish in a very few hours. But powder and shot is too 
expensive in these regions to be wasted on such “small fry,” and 
perhaps the report of your gun will spring two or three Bustards 
within a few hundred yards. 
Tt makes a close compact nest of roots of fibres in a tuft of grass 
most artfully concealed, and the female sits so closely that she will 
allow the clump to be touched before she will move. Eggs 3-5; they 
2m 2 
