36 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



black head, throat, and chest, and its red bill and 

 orange feet. Here also were specimens of another 

 of the Columbidce discovered by the indefatigable 

 Le Vaillant, the Columba Le Vaillantii, commonly 

 called by the Dutch colonists the tortel duif. Upon 

 the neck of this bird, which is principally of a 

 grayish brown colour, the broad black half-collar, 

 fringed by a thinner ash-coloured band, charac- 

 teristic of the turtle-doves, is at once apparent. 

 Here, too, was the sweet laughing dove of the 

 colonists, La tourterelle maillee of Le Vaillant, Turtur 

 senegalensis of Linnaeus, distinguished from its soft- 

 cooing cousins by its singularly human-like laughing 

 note. The noticeable features of this little beauty's 

 plumage are the peculiar black mail-like markings 

 upon the breast, the dark rufus-coloured shoulders, 

 and the nearly white stomach. But wandering a 

 little further afield to a stony kopje, we killed the 

 first buck of our trip. This was a handsome little 

 ram steinbok, which was shot in some straggling 

 covert by our guide and Frank. This most elegant 

 little antelope, notable among its fellows for its light 

 and beautiful form, its bright red cinnamon colour, 

 and its swiftness in the chase, is yet often very easy 

 to obtain ; for it has a most stupid habit, especially 

 in bushy cover, of stopping to stare at its disturbers. 

 The little ram shot on this occasion had almost 

 waited until the gunners were upon it, and had then 

 been easily shot at close quarters. Having fastened 

 up the steinbok upon the Cape cart, we drove 

 steadily on till nightfall. 



Next morning we were early upon the road, and 

 after half a day's trek across the brown karroo, 

 which here stretched everywhere around, bounded 



