GAME-BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



I HAVE not met with this bird in South Africa, and there is 

 not much of interest on record about it. It is usually met 

 with in flocks where plentiful, flying in V-shaped formation, 

 and it not infrequently perches on dead trees, at which times 

 it is not difficult to approach ; it is said by sportsmen to be 

 exceedingly good-eating, but those which I ate in British 

 East Africa were not particularly so. 



Mr. C. H. Taylor writes in the Journal of the South 

 African Ornithologists' Union for 1907, that in the Amers- 

 foort District (South-east Transvaal) they are resident, 

 and breed regularly during the months of November and 

 December, making a nest in the long grass, usually at 

 the side of a " vlei " or near a pan. In one instance on 

 the farm Rolfontein, they used to nest amongst the stones 

 on a low-lying kopje, but of recent years have been too 

 much disturbed in this locality, and apparently no longer 

 breed there. 



They are very destructive to lands freshly sown with 

 mealies or oats, rooting up the grain and doing much 

 damage. A short while ago, in the Ermelo District, four of 

 these ducks were caught in traps put into a patch of forage 

 for this purpose. 



Mr. Taylor further writes that he has seen them in great 

 numbers on the Que Que River in Matabeleland, where 

 they are migratory, arriving in September and staying all 

 through the rainy season. 



Like other duck and geese, they shed all their flight- 

 feathers in the spring, and when in this state, being unable 

 to fly, are easily caught. 



Mr. Sclater states that it apparently breeds in Bechuana- 

 land, though no one has hitherto given any account of the 

 matter. Eggs laid in captivity in Mr. Blaauw's aviaries in 



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