MOTACILLA CAPENSIS. 549 
rail of his chair, another would jump at the flies on his soil-stained 
shoes, while two or three more stood pecking at those that plagued 
the old dog lying at his master’s feet. Perhaps one or two would 
have found their way into the voorhuwis, or entrance-hall, where a 
rich harvest awaited them in the bodies of those flies slain by the 
attendant dark urchins, who, often ignorant of breeches or petticoats, 
guard their master’s viands with a plume of dirty ostrich-feathers or 
leafy bough torn from the nearest tree. 
These birds consort much with cattle, and jump up against their 
. sides as they stand lazily chewing the cud, to catch the small flies 
that keep about them; they also congregate in considerable numbers 
on the sea-beach, to feed on the flies bred in the putrifying sea- 
weed: they run along the sand with great agility, or walk with a 
stately, swaggering gait, which is very amusing. They also con- 
gregate in flocks upon favourite trees for the purpose of roosting ; 
and this may chiefly be observed in towns. 
The nest is generally constructed in a bank if in the fields; but 
when in the town they select a hole in the wall, or a dense mass 
of leaves in some plant creeping up a wall or tree. The nest is 
composed of leaves, small roots, and horse-hair, with which the 
structure is lined. The eggs are four or five in number, greyish 
white, minutely freckled with brown, chiefly at the obtuse end: 
axis, 9’’’: diam., 61'’’. 
Adult male.—General colour above brown with a faint wash of 
olive; wing-coverts like the back, the outer median and greater 
series as well as the bastard-wing edged with ashy olive; primary- 
coverts and quills dark brown, edged with ashy olive, browner on 
the secondaries, the first primary narrowly margined with white ; 
upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers blackish brown, the two 
outer feathers white with a mark of brown extending from the 
base of the outer web for some distance obliquely up the inner web 
and more extended on the penultimate than the external feather ; 
head and hind neck dull ashy grey; a narrow eyebrow of white ; 
lores, feathers below the eye and ear-coverts blackish; cheeks and 
entire throat white ; across the fore-neck a rather broad crescentic 
band of black; breast and abdomen pale yellowish or white marked 
with pale yellow, becoming pure white on the under tail-coverts ; 
sides of body brown, the sides of the upper breast lighter and more 
ashy brown; thighs dusky brown; axillaries pale ashy or smoky 
