TURDID^E. 139 



passing the Orange Elver.* He states that they lay four eggs, of an 

 olive-green colour. I hare received one single specimen from Mr. 

 Moffat, of Kuruman ; several from Mr. Arnot (Colcsberg),^ and Capt. 

 Bulger, at Windvogelberg : and found it abundant at 1ST el's Poort, 

 replacing P. Capensis, which it exactly resembles^ in habits and note. 

 Mr. Henry Jackson sends eggs of this species, precisely similar to those 

 of P. Capensis, and writes that " the nest is a cup, slightly formed, in 

 a tree." 



262. Pycnonotus Aurigaster, vieiii. ; Turdus 



Aurigaster, Yieill.; F. Ohrysorhoeus, Temm.; Le Gudor, 

 Le Vail, No. 107, f. 2 ; Guv. Vol. 6, p. 389. 

 CLOSELY resembles Pycnonotus Cafer, but wants the crest; 

 the head and throat are black; back of the neck, back, and 

 scapulars are of a uniform grey-brown ; the wings are also 

 brown, but of a duller hue ; the tail is dark-brown, tipped 

 with white, as are also the front of the throat, the breast, 

 flanks, and belly ; vent, a beautiful golden-yellow. 



Le Vaillant says his faithful attendant, the Hottentot Klaas, shot 

 the only specimen of this bird procured, on the banks of the Great Fish 

 River, in Kaffraria. Another, probably the Q, was in company with 

 it, but escaped. Sundevall, however, denies this statement, and shows 

 that it is a Javanese species. 



263. PycnonotUS Cafer, Linn.; TurduMCafer, 

 Latb. ; Cuvier, Vol. 6, p. 388 ; Muscicapa Hcemorr- 

 housa, Lath., PI. Enl. 563, f. 1 ; Merle Curouge, Le 

 Vail., PI. 107, f. 1. 



THROAT and top-knot black ; neck, back, wings, and tail, 

 clear-brown, but each feather bordered with white, which 

 give's the bird a scaled appearance; the chest is paler; the 



* I have been at some little pains to traco Le Vaillant" s footsteps in Southern 

 Africa, in order, if possible, to identify such of the birds as have been introduced 

 into his great work as South African, "but which are supposed by some to have been 

 obtained from other countries. A statement which appeared "some time ago in the 

 serial '' Household "Words," to the effect that Le Vaillant never was in South 

 Africa, also stimulate my desire to obtain full information regarding him. 



1 need not follow him through all his wanderings at this moment : this I may per- 

 haps do at some future time. Suffice it for my present purpose to say, that I do not 

 believe that he ever crossed the Orange River and procured this bird there. 



He describes in his travels how he was floated across the swollen liver, and his 

 chase after the giraffe. I question much if this account is true. There was living 

 at Camicsberg, within the last few years, an aged woman named Van Zyl, who 

 related to my informant that she well remembered the "Kleine Franschman" 

 (little Frenchman), as she called him; that during his stay in that part of the country 

 lie lodged entirely at her house ; and that he never crossed the Orange Rirer, being too 

 much of a coward so to do. When told that he stated he had shot tke giraffe, she 

 scouted the idea, and declared that the skin which he took away was brought piece- 

 meal from the opposite side of the river by hia Hottentots. Mrs. Van Zyl was a 

 huge, rawboned woman, who stood upwards of six feet, and usually wound up her 

 narrations concerning Le Vaillant by laughingly relating how she had horsewhipped 

 the " little Frenchman " for attempting some liberties with her. 



