PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE—HAAGNER. 503 
semblance existing between the coloration of the thickknee’s plumage 
and that of the grass, stones, and tree trunks of its most cherished 
haunts among the mimosa scrub. I have hunted this bird often in 
the QO. R. C. and Transvaal and always noticed this fact; it is no 
easy matter to sight it while it is on the ground. It does not readily 
rise, nor does it seem to be a very strong flyer, requiring a run before 
it rises on the wing. It seldom, if ever, goes higher than the tops of 
the mimosas. Hence the probable reason for the very protective 
nature of its plumage. 
Coming to the Charadride, burchell’s courser (Cursorius rufus) 
is perhaps one of the best examples of protective coloration in this 
family. I have often observed this in the Maroka district of the 
O. R. C. between Thaba N’chu and Ladybrand, where they are very 
common, feeding in flocks on the dried and burnt stretches of veld. 
When in pairs or small parties they are seldom flushed at once; 
they run with great rapidity and then suddenly drop down and 
crouch close to the earth, possibly relying on their assimilative 
coloration, which is very great, for further concealment. These 
birds make delicious eating, and consequently were often hunted by 
me. When one is wounded and settles a little way off it requires 
no small amount of patience and perseverance to locate it, as it 
crouches close to the ground among the grass. The foregoing ob- 
servations hold good for C. bicinctus, which bird can be met with 
in the O. R. C. consorting with C. rufus. It is, however, a much 
scarcer species. The three-collared plover (Charadrius tricollaris) 
is also protectively colored. They are well endowed with this, as 
Charles Dixon has also noticed (Curiosities of Bird Life) ; but when 
it is most useful is during the period of nesting, at which time the 
bird requires this gift of nature, hatching as it does in the open or 
among sparsely growing weeds (see pl. 2). This applies equally 
to the crowned lapwing (Stephanibyx coronata), as indeed, we may 
safely assume, to most if not all of the species of the family under 
discussion. One notable exception, of course, is the cape painted 
snipe (Rhynchwa capensis), the female of which (contrary to the 
usual course) is a brightly plumaged bird. The reason of this 
strange case has as yet not been ascertained. 
I will now close my remarks on protective resemblance with a very 
brief reference to the nest and eggs of some South African birds. 
The eggs of the majority of birds which lay in the open are pro- 
tectively colored, viz, those of the sand grouse, which are deposited 
in a slight hollow in the bare sand; the plovers, etc., which are laid 
among the mud clots and dried weeds of the water’s edge or among 
the half-dried grass of the veld; the game birds (francolin, bustard, 
etc.), which are deposited among the grass. All are tinted with 
45745°—sm 1909——33 
