THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 317 



signifies gum peacock ; this bustard being quaintly 

 called by the Boers " peacock " from its fancied 

 resemblance to that bird in its habits during the 

 pairing and breeding season. This bustard and no 

 other is supposed to have an inordinate affection for 

 the gum which exudes from the mimosa thickets 

 (near which it is often found) at certain seasons, 

 and it then attains its extraordinary fatness and 

 condition. 



I first met with and shot the paauw between 

 Jansenville and Graaff Reinet, and I shall never 

 forget the exultation with which my shooting 

 companion and myself witnessed the fall of the great 

 bird to our rifle bullets at about sixty paces. This 

 particular individual weighed twenty-six pounds, but' 

 they frequently run from thirty pounds to thirty-five 

 pounds, and even forty pounds, and farther up in the 

 interior they reach, I believe, the enormous weight of 

 from sixty pounds to seventy pounds. During a 

 lengthened stay in the Midland and Eastern provinces 

 of Cape Colony, I saw only some half-dozen 

 specimens of this noble bird, and of these I shot 

 only one other, for they are exceedingly shy and 

 difficult of approach. In some seasons they are, 

 however, more plentiful, and especially when 

 excessive droughts prevail beyond the Orange River. 

 These bustards are often extraordinarily fat, so much 

 so as to make one wonder how they can attain such 

 adipose proportions in so hot and dry a climate, 

 An old colonial friend, Mr. J. B. Evans, of Riet 

 Fontein, on whose extensive farms I have often shot 

 at the Cape, gave me a striking instance of this 

 characteristic. 



Years ago, when this bird was much more 



