GAME-BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



and occasionally come down into mealie and Kaffir-corn 

 fields or " lands " as they are called in South Africa. In the 

 hot part of the day they copy other Francolins and rest in 

 sheltered places. 



Mr. D. F. GilfiUan writes in the Journal of the South African 

 Ornithologists'' Union for April, 1908, as follows : — 



" I have found these birds in the Districts of Queenstown, 

 Cradock, Steynberg, and Middelburg in the Cape Colony. 



" At one time they were very plentiful on the Stormberg, 

 Queenstown, and also on the Zuurberg, Steynsberg District, 

 it being not uncommon for a single gun to shoot forty brace 

 over dogs in a day. The part of the country where I have 

 found them most plentiful is in the grassveld in the Sneeuberg 

 Mountains between Cradock and Graaff Reinet. In these parts 

 they were generally found among low shrubs and in the red 

 grass, but never by me in certain coarse grass growing thicker 

 and longer than the red grass and known as ' Koper Draad ' 

 [anglice, copper wire] by the Boers, which is plentiful there, 

 and which to look at should form an ideal covert for the birds. 

 In July last I counted over twenty birds in a covey, and I am 

 of opinion that there were thirty at least in that covey ; they 

 flew out of sight before I could complete the counting. When 

 found amid the rugged mountainous surroundings where I 

 was shooting them last July they offer very sportmg shots, 

 as they are often found close to the edge of a precipice 50 to 

 500 feet deep, sheer down into a deep valley. The instant 

 such coveys are flushed they would dive down over the edge, 

 giving very difficult shooting, with perhaps a walk of half a 

 mile or more to recover any birds killed. These birds are 

 very fond of frequentmg cultivated lands to pick up grain, 

 and I have been informed by several farmers, living in the parts 

 where I was shooting, that in the mountains they will scratch 



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