174 SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



beak at the time the photograph was taken. Like all 

 Stone-chats, these birds are fond of perching on the 

 topmost spray of some low bush, or plant, whence their 

 familiar note may often be heard ; they were generally 

 to be met with on the open hills, but a few of them 

 might be found on any sufficiently dry ground near the 

 estuary. 



In one of the big trees which grew here and there 

 on the banks of this stream, there had been a Hammer- 

 kop's nest, but someone had pulled it down recently, 

 the ground at the foot of the tree being littered with 

 sticks, of which the nest had been constructed ; these 

 sticks would certainly have filled a small hand-cart. 

 As we drove home in the evening we passed one of 

 these birds, feeding in his solitary way. 



We spent Christmas at Knysna, doing our best to 

 keep up the traditions of the old country, and were 

 even able to dispense a little ill-deserved charity, in the 

 shape of a Christmas-box to our sometime guide David, 

 which this youth demanded with great assurance ; 

 previously to this we had seen nothing of him for some 

 weeks. New Year's Day is always a great day at 

 Knysna, everybody taking a holiday ; the black people 

 especially seem to give themselves up to enjoyment, 

 the boys playing cricket, the girls playing concertinas, 

 and the old people watching them and gossiping, as 

 they sit about on the ground. To wind up with, at 

 night there is a grand coloured ball, to which they all 

 appear to go. Shortly before seven o'clock on this 

 same New Year's Day, David slowly sauntered up to 

 the door of our hotel and said that he wished to speak 

 to one of us. Knowing that we were shortly to leave 



