128 PICIDJE CAMPOTHERA 



and shrubs, Symonds noticed them on the lowest branches of the 

 mimosa trees near Kroonstad, and Stark flying from one Protea bush 

 to another in the French Hoek mountains of the Paarl division. 

 Their note is loud and not unmelodious, though Burchell compares 

 it to the sound made by filing the teeth of a saw ; their food consists 

 entirely of ground-living insects of various kinds which they search 

 for with their strong beaks in the crevices of rocks and underneath 

 stones ; they appear to be early breeders throughout their range ; 

 Stark found a nest on August 12 near Wellington, and Butler one 

 on August 2, near Newcastle in Natal; a bank is usually chosen, 

 into which is bored a tunnel running slightly upwards from the 

 entrance, for about eighteen inches to several feet ; at the end of 

 this, in a slight depression without any nest, are laid 4-5 white eggs, 

 somewhat rounded in shape and measuring about 1-0 X OS5. 



Genus II. CAMPOTHERA. 



Type. 

 Dendromus (nee Smith, 1829), Swains. Class. B. ii, 



p. 307 (1837) C. maculosa. 



Campothera, Gray, List Gen. B., p. 70 (1841) C. maculosa. 



Bill moderate with a distinct though narrow nasal shelf, its 

 breadth at the base of the bill less than the distance between its 

 outer edge and the cutting edge of the mandible ; nostrils concealed 

 by the nasal bristles ; wing pointed, the difference between the 

 primaries and the secondaries almost equalling the length of the 

 culmen ; tarsus short, equal to or less than posterior outer toe and 

 claw, which is generally shorter than the outer anterior one ; tail 

 short and stiff, the shafts of the quills usually yellow. 



The genus is confined to the* Ethiopian region ; five out of some 

 seventeen species are found in South Africa. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Back spotted with yellowish white. 



a. Below with rounded black spots through- 



out C. notata, p. 129. 



b. Below with longitudinal black streaks ... C. abingdoni, p. 130. 



c. Throat and chest black, spotted with 



white; rest of the under surface 



yellowish streaked with black C. smithi, p. 131. 



