PINAROCORYS NIGRICANS. 73 



in Zululand, 28° 30' S. lat., 31° 30' E. long. ; here, the Messrs. 

 Woodward procured a single specimen. According to Dr. 

 Stark, the species is " not uncommon in the Transvaal near 

 Potchefstroom and Rustenburg." Two specimens from that 

 district were collected by Mr. T. Ayres, who writes : " Stomach 

 contained locusts. This, to me, exceedingly scarce bird, was 

 shot amongst the hills to the north of Rustenburg, within six 

 miles of the Crocodile river, it was a solitary bird, running on 

 some flat rocks with much sheltering scrub about, and very 

 Pipit-like in its appearance and manners." On the same day 

 of the same month, but three years later, he again procured a 

 specimen (January 10, 1885), and writes : " This is the second 

 specimen of M. nigricans which I have met with. I found it 

 amongst the scrubby bush on a rocky range of hills, some 

 couple of miles from the banks of the Mooi river, and about 

 twenty from the sources of that stream. My attention was 

 attracted to the bird by its large size, dipping flight, and 

 Pipit-like appearance." The type of the species possibly came 

 from this neighbourhood, as it was discovered by "Wahlberg in 

 the Upper Limpopo district. 



To the north of the Limpopo, Bradshaw obtained a specimen 

 which is now in the British Museum, labelled " Makalaka 

 country." On the left bank of the Zambesi, near the mouth 

 of the Kafue river, in about 29° E. long., Mr. Boyd Alexander 

 met with three of these birds together on December 26, con- 

 sisting of two males and a female. They " frequented open 

 land where the trees had been felled by the natives, and the 

 ground sown with grain. The feathers of the mantle of these 

 three individuals have almost lost their pale edgings." 



