826 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
but we notice that Mr. Layard appears to have done his best 
for Mr. Seebohm, when he states that he found the bird breeding 
on the Berg River, whence there are two specimens of his in 
the British Museum. We ourselves, as editor, do not appear 
to have been guilty of “carelessness” in our compilation of the 
facts as far as they were published up to the time of our writing 
the account of the species ; and, therefore, as the cap is still floating 
about somewhere in search of a resting-place, we propose to place 
it on the head of Mr. Seebohm himself, who, from the facts (1) 
of the breeding of the bird at the Berg River, (2) of its occurrence 
in the Transvaal in winter, i.e. April and June, (3) from the 
presence of specimens in their breeding dress as well as in winter 
plumage in the British Museum, and (4) because no one has 
found the species owt of South African limits, has shown on 
his part wn-‘‘accustomed carelessness” in not deducing from his 
facts that the bird must be a resident in South Africa. 
Not uncommon in the thickest reeds in the vleys near Newcastle in 
September and October, at which season it breeds (B., F., and f.). 
Page 288. BrapyPrERUS SYLVATICUS. 
Caconda (Anchieta). Cf. Bocage, Orn. Angola, p. 554. 
The editor has referred three specimens in the British Museum from 
South Africa, collected by Sir Andrew Smith, to B. sylvaticus of 
Sundevall. The under tail-coverts are dark olive-brown, lighter 
on their margins; the throat is slightly mottled with dark edges 
to the feathers ; the chest is uniform ashy brown. 
Fig. Sharpe, Cat. B. vii, pl. iv. 
Page 289. Insert :—BRrADYPTERUS BARRATII, Sharpe. 
This species has the under tail-coverts, as in B. sylvaticus, dark olive- 
brown with lighter margins. The upper surface is reddish 
chocolate-brown, the throat and breast always distinctly spotted 
and streaked with black. 
It was discovered by Mr. F. A. Barratt in the Lydenburg district of 
the Transvaal, and Mr. Ayres has met with it at Macamac. His 
son, Mr. T. L. Ayres, has also sent some beautiful specimens to 
Captain Shelley from Natal. 
Fig. Barratt, Ibis, 1876, pl. 4. 
Page 289. AcROCEPHALUS FULVOLATERALIS. 
According to Mr. Seebohm (Cat. B. v, p. 95), this supposed new species 
is only the ordinary A. turdoides (vel. A. arundinaceus) of Europe, 
after the autumn moult. Mr. Lueas has procured the species 
