from the higher Mountains of Nyika, 487 



Central Africa ; I myself have come across very few, and 

 these have been confined to the plateaux west of Lake 

 Nyasa. Some two miles east of Jakwa mountain, Henga, at 

 3300 feet altitude, I procured two specimens in November, 

 1895 ; here, in a dry rush-covered ' pan ' (a great resort for 

 wart-hogs), I came upon a bevy of four birds, and shot two, 

 both males. 



" Doubtless one must have come across this little Quail 

 before then, but had not paid it any particular attention, 

 and so did not notice anything remarkable about it. 



" The fact is, in a country like this part of British Central 

 Africa, where so much other and more desirable game is 

 obtainable. Quail are no temptation to fire a shot, all the 

 more so as one spoils one's chances of something better. 



" It is only here and there that one meets with an odd 

 bird or two, usually the large Common Quail {Coturnix 

 communis) or another with a reddish-brown breast (C dele- 

 gorguei), and, of course, the little ' Button ' [Turmx lepida), 

 which so often falls a victim to the native's stick. 



" In an ordinary day^s tramp after game it is exceptional 

 to see more than half-a-dozen Quail all told, and these, more 

 often than not, surprise one at odd and inauspicious 

 moments. 



'' Adanson's Quail, though little or nothing larger than 

 the ordinary ' Button,' has not the same weak and restricted 

 flight ; it flies swiftly and strongly, and twists when on the 

 wing after the manner of the larger Quail. 



'' The natives of the district * do not appear to know this 

 bird, or at any rate have no other name for it than that by 

 which they call the ' Button,' viz. ' Chizwiri ' {not to be 

 confounded with ' Chinziri,' the Manganja word) ; the 

 Common Quail they know as ' Chimbuwi.' " 



Bubo verreauxi, Bonap. 



Bubo lacteus, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. ii. p. 33 (1875). 

 A fine female example of this rare Owl, together with its 

 egg, was also presented by Mr. Crawshay, and he has 

 * "7. c, the Wahenga, Wankamaiiga, and Watumbiika." — K. C. 



