NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



are very well known all over South Africa. I have 

 watched them both, always with the greatest interest 

 and admiration, in various parts of the country, even 

 upon temporary rain vleis on the verge of the dry 

 Kalahari desert. 



Ruffs and reeves {Machetes pugnax) are quite familiar 

 birds in South Africa. There, however, like most others 

 of this group, they appear only in winter plumage, and 

 the male bird is destitute of the ruff, from which it 

 takes its English name. In South Africa these birds 

 are fairly tame, and may be noticed in small bands of 

 from three to a dozen. The knot is rare in South 

 Africa, but may occasionally be observed among flights 

 of stints, sanderlings, and curlew-sandpipers upon the 

 coastline. Little stints, curlew-sandpipers, and sander- 

 lings, all familiar British birds, are common in most 

 parts of South Africa, either about vleis and marshes 

 inland, or along the sea shores and estuaries. 



Some sportsmen in South Africa have supposed that 

 our common British snipe reaches Cape Colony. I do 

 not think, however, that this is the case, and I know 

 of no properly authenticated instance of its doing so. 

 It has been recorded in Africa along the Upper Nile 

 and in the Gambia country, but never yet I believe 

 further south. That much rarer bird, the great or 

 solitary snipe, often called the double snipe {Gallinago 

 major), is, however, well known south of the Zambesi, 

 and with the handsome painted snipe {Rhynchcea 

 Capensis) affords capital shooting to those who are fond 

 of this kind of sport. Both the double snipe and the 

 painted snipe breed in Cape Colony. 



Among rails and crakes several of our British species 

 are found also in South Africa. The well-known water- 

 rail {Rallus aquaticus) of England and other parts of 

 Europe has been identified in Natal, but must, I think, 



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