8 MACRONYX CROCEUS. 



knock over nnmbers of them with their sticks, and grass-fires 

 are apt to destroy their nests." 



One Transvaal specimen in the British Museum has a 

 horny spike on each side of the throat, and in another from 

 Natal I found a similarly placed bare patch with the indication 

 of a small wattle. I presume that this is the effect of some 

 disease to which the species is subject. 



This Long-claw has been met with by Dr. Kendall in the 

 Barberton district of the Transvaal, and at Inbambane by Mr. 

 Francis, and the fonner naturalist remarks : " As this bird 

 circles down and alights with outspread wings, the tail is 

 also spread and the white rectrices are noticeable. It has a 

 short and rather pleasing song while on the wing." Mr. 

 H, S. H. Cavendish procured a specimen near Beira and Dr. 

 Stuhlmann others at Quilimane, where the natives call it 

 " Djogore Mreo." A few miles further north Serpo Pinto 

 met with the species at Kisanga and on the adjacent island of 

 Ibo, where the natives call it the " Esse." At the Zambesi 

 Sir John Kirk found it abundant on the sea-coast of the Delta. 

 Further up the river Capt. Boyd Alexander shot a pair in full 

 breeding plumage at Senna in February. " The male bird 

 kept perching on the tops of the bushes and uttering a pleasant 

 song, after which it would suddenly shoot straight up into 

 the air and alight once more a little further oflT." In Nyasa- 

 land specimens have been collected at Zomba, Fort Johnston, 

 Tshiromo, Mtondwe and Kasungu. To the north of Lake 

 Nyasa one of Dr. FiiUeborn's specimens of Long-claws have 

 been referred to a new species, M. fulleboriii, Reichen, but the 

 present species is very well represented throughout Central 

 and East Africa, where specimens have been collected by 

 Bohm at Boga-Katana, by Fischer at Lindi, the Rovuma river, 

 Bagamoyo, Lamu, the Tana river, Barawa and Gallaland ; by 

 Sir John Kirk at Dar-es-Salam, Zanzibar and the Usambara 



