NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



Orange River, and has been observed most plentifully 

 in Damaraland and Great Namaqualand. I have seen 

 it occasionally in British Bechuanaland. The pied 

 flycatcher, curiously enough, although well known in 

 North Africa and Gambia, is apparently not a visitor to 

 southern Africa. The red-backed shrike — our well- 

 known butcher bird — as well as the lesser grey shrike, 

 are familiar birds south of the Zambesi, as, indeed, are 

 many other shrikes unknown to Europe. Upon the 

 whole, the lesser grey shrike, which is much scarcer in 

 England than the red-backed species, may be pro- 

 nounced the more abundant of the two in southern 

 Africa. The woodchat {Lanius pomeranus) was said by 

 Le Vaillant to be found in South Africa, but no other 

 observer since his day has been able to identify it. The 

 great grey shrike, a winter visitor to the British Islands, 

 is unknown south of the Zambesi. 



Our well-known cu .^oo is occasionally met with in 

 South Africa, but is not so well known as some of the 

 other and more brilliant cuckoos — the splendid golden 

 and emerald cuckoos, for example — for which that 

 country is famous. Among the fifteen species which 

 have been identified south of the Zambesi, the Cape 

 cuckoo {CuciUus gnlaris), well known in the interior, 

 bears a strong resemblance to its European congener, 

 and is sometimes mistaken for it. 



Doves and pigeons, often of the most beautiful 

 colours, are extraordinarily abundant in South Africa, 

 and their tender cooing is one of the most familiar of 

 veldt sounds wherever bush or trees are to be found. 

 Yet, singularly enough, the familiar turtledove, which 

 arrives in England towards the beginning of May, is 

 unknown so far south. This bird winters in North 

 Africa and the warmer parts of Western Asia. 



The European quail, which, although much rarer 



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