9i8.] Birds met ivith in South Africa. 599 



not appear to reach Lake Chrissie until 17 October, wlien I 

 saw one. On 19 October I saw six, and from 1 November 

 onwards they rapidly increased in numbers until, when 1 

 left this district in the middle of January, they were there 

 in tiiousands. These birds struck iiie as being- very pale on 

 the chin and forehead. A specimen 1 shot on 15 December 

 was moulting the feathers of tlie back, breast, and tail, the 

 two outer rectrices being still in the quill. There were 

 plenty of birds at Cape Town when I left on 12 February. 



Riparia riparia. Sand-Martin. On 29 November I shot 

 two Sand-Martins out of a small flock of about a dozen 

 (Lake Chrissie). These were both young birds, and both 

 moulting their secondaries, rectrices, and the feathers on 

 the back of the neck. 



Micropus apus. Swift. On Christmas-day a flock of 

 Black Swifts, indistinguishable on the wing from this 

 species, were hawking over the garden, but as I was unable 

 to shoot one I cannot be certain of their identity. 



Cuculus canorus. Cuckoo. I shot a specimen of this 

 bird on 14 December (Lake Chrissie). It was a male, and 

 was undergoing a complete moult from juvenile to first 

 winter-plumage, including the feathers oF the head, body, 

 wing-coverts and primaries, secondaries and rectrices. 



Falco naumanni. Lesser Kestrel. From time to time 

 flocks of Lesser Kestrels would come in at sundown to 

 roost in the gum-trees round the farm (Lake Chrissie). 

 On 4 December a flock of between forty and fifty arrived, 

 three of which I shot. These proved to be an adult male 

 and female, neither showing sign of moult, and a young 

 male in plumage very similar to that of the female, but 

 moulting into the adult male plumage on the body. The 

 crops of all three were filled with the remains of scorpions 

 and large spiders. On 12 January many hundreds of these 

 birds were sitting on the telegraph-wires beside the railway 

 line between Breyton and Johannesburg. 



