GAME BIRDS 21 



QUAIL. Three species of quail belong to south Africa ; 

 each is migratory in habit. The Cape Quail is a sub- 

 species of the European quail, and is that usually met 

 with by sportsmen in south Africa ; but the type common 

 to the Transvaal eastern bush country is the Harlequin 

 Quail. It appears and disappears with remarkable 

 suddenness, and rather irregularly ; but, generally 

 speaking, it arrives in the low country at the end of the 

 wet season about April and remains until August. 

 I have seen large numbers in April, after an exceptionally 

 wet season, when the grass was very long, and I have 

 noticed pairs in August. That the natives recognize 

 its departure towards the end of the winter as being 

 fairly regular is manifest from their current superstition 

 that a month or two before the rains the quails all turn 

 into rats. This belief is due to the fact that, towards 

 the close of the dry season, pickings of all kinds become 

 scarce in the veld, and so the quails migrate, and the 

 rats, seeking the comparative plenty of the villages, 

 swarm thereto in hosts. 



Button Quail. Three species of Hemipodes, or button 

 quail, exist in south Africa. They are smaller than true 

 quail, solitary, and partially migratory in habit. 



THE SANDGROUSE. Four species are described from 

 south Africa : the Yellow-Throated Sandgrouse, the 

 Spotted Sandgrouse, the Double-Bended Sandgrouse, and 

 the Namaqua Sandgrouse. Of these the double-banded 

 sandgrouse occurs in the bush country of the eastern 

 Transvaal. The crown of the head and the forehead 

 are white divided by a black band, and the upper parts 

 of the body black mottled with yellow. 



The double-banded sandgrouse appears to be locally 

 migratory in habit. It prefers dry and often stony 

 surroundings, with plenty of sandy soil. In exceptionally 



