596 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
my specimens in stony elevations and on the sides of mountains, 
where they are found in considerable quantity early in the morning.” 
The late Mr. Frank Oates procured two males at Rettief’s Drift on 
the Vaal River. 
General colour, light cinereous, approaching to ashy on the breast — 
and belly, variegated on the back with very dark blotches, rufous 
transverse bars, and a light streak down the shaft of each feather ; 
breast and flanks much blotched with deep rufous; belly and vent 
much mottled with transverse, narrow bars of blackish-brown, 
assuming an arrow-headed form on the shafts of many of the 
feathers ; chin, throat, and stripe extending from the back of the 
eye almost to the shoulder, white, mottled with black, disposed 
more or less in the shape of a circle; a broad rufous band, more or 
less mottled with black, extends from the forehead over the head 
down the neck ; a similar band less in breadth, and scarcely mottled, 
extends from the bill under the eye, and joins the rufous marking 
of the chest; tail dark-brown, barred with rufous. Length, 12’; 
wing, 6”; tail, 3”. 
574, FRANCOLINUS LEVAILLANTIT, Zemm. Le Vaillant’s Francolin. 
As in I’. afer, a large portion of some of the feathers of both the 
crop and flanks are chestnut, and the breast is not so evenly 
barred, but the chin and upper are not speckled, and the latter is 
rufous buff. 
This very handsome bird is in the western districts extremely 
local, frequenting isolated spots, generally secluded vallies between 
high mountain ranges, through which flows a mountain stream. In 
the palmiet which crowds the morasses formed by the unrestraimed 
waters, and crouching amid the tufts of coarse grass and reeds, 
these birds may be found; and we have often killed one with our 
first barrel, and a snipe with the second. 
They lie very close, and on several occasions we have actually 
parted the grass under the pointer’s nose to allow the birds to rise. 
If flushed a second time and well marked down, they may often be 
caught with the hand, as they will hardly rise again. In dry weather 
they keep so close to the dense palmiet, that it is impossible to get 
them out. We are informed that in the eastern districts it affects 
the hill sides, and does not frequent morasses. This we found to be 
the case at Grootvadersbosch, except that the places in which they 
