THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 313 



tops of hills, surrounded on every side by scenery of 

 surpassing beauty. 



The red-wing francolin, or " partridge " (Franco- 

 linus Le Vaillantii), is, to my mind, taken all round, 

 one of the handsomest and most representative of 

 South African game birds. In size it slightly exceeds 

 the grey- wing, but in colouring it far outvies that bird. 

 In general colour it is not dissimilar, but the markings 

 are much darker and brighter. Thin white stripes, 

 mottled with black, run from the beak, over each 

 eye, to the back of the head, where they unite and 

 extend further. A similar stripe runs under the eye 

 across the ear, trending to the chest, where it 

 broadens into a crescent not unlike the white gorget 

 of the ring ousel of this country, but bigger. A 

 beautiful rich orange-red band surrounds the eye, 

 passes over the ear, then widens and spreads 

 backward to the neck and forward to the white 

 crescent upon the chest. The front part of the 

 throat is of the same rich colour. The chest 

 beneath the white crescent, the stomach, and sides 

 are beautifully coloured with dark rufous and brown 

 mottlings, and the insides of the wing feathers are 

 dark rufous from whence the bird takes its name. 

 In a deep, far extending kloof or glen, some miles 

 from Naroekas Poort, through which meandered a 

 small stream, these fine birds abounded, and here 

 we often had very excellent sport with them. They 

 lie, as I have before mentioned, often with 

 extraordinary tenacity, and especially in the thick 

 palmiet bordering the streams, and in long grass, 

 they can sometimes hardly be forced to rise. In 

 some localities they are found on higher ground, like 

 the grey-wing partridge, but, as a rule, they are not 



