OTIS SCOLOPACEA. 627 
variegated with minute dark brown wavy lines; top of head black ; 
eyebrows and chin white; front of neck and chest white, tinged 
more or less with slate colour; ruff at back and side of neck rufous, 
under parts white ; wings, when closed, appearing mottled black and 
white ; tail white, with four broad black bars; legs and bill yellow. 
Length, 3’ 6”; wing, 23”; tail, 13”. 
The female much resembles the male, except that she is smaller, 
has only a corona of black round her head, and is altogether less 
highly coloured. 
Fig. Riipp. Mus. Senckenb., 1837, pl. 14. 
609. Oris sconopacza, Temm. Pink-coloured Bustard. 
Hupodotis scolopacea, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 284. 
The Vaal Knorhaan is common on the Karroo, about Beaufort 
West and Zoetendals Vley. It is usually found in pairs, and prefers 
running among the scanty herbage, and trusting to its dusky 
plumage to effect its escape, to taking flight. If it fancies itself 
unobserved it will suddenly squat, and, unless the spot is correctly 
marked, so great is its similarity to the soil and stones among which 
it is found, that it is next to impossible to detect it. It is so well 
aware of this, that it will remain immoyable till the sportsman 
walks direct towards it, on which it instantly takes flight; but if it 
is approached in a series of concentric circles, it remains until the 
sportsman is within a few paces. 
It feeds on seeds, insects and small reptiles, constructs no nest, 
but deposits its two eggs in a depression of the soil in the open 
veldt. The eggs vary much in colour—some are olive, some light 
brown, and others rich nankin. All are, however, more or less 
spotted and blotched with brown and indistinct purple. Axis, 2” 8’; 
diame, 1’? 1107"; 
General colour, cinereous, here and there passing into rufous, 
minutely mottled with dark brown and black ; quill feathers black, 
with the inner webs more or less isabella-coloured ; chin and top of 
throat jet black, surrounded by a pale yellow edging ; a black half- 
moon-shaped mark at the back of the head, which is slightly crested. 
The whole of the body plumage in the live bird is glossed with a 
beautiful pink lustre, which fades after death; each plume, on 
being withdrawn, shows a delicate ferruginous and very lax web 
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