TETRAONID/E. 267 



for any length of time in their hiding-places until they are called 

 together again by the shrill note of the parent bird. In the Fish 

 River valley they roost upon the willow branches that project over the 

 large holes of water, out of the reach of wild-cats. Sir Walter Currie 

 has upwards of an hundred of these beautiful birds upon his property 

 (Oatlands) at Graham's Town : they are thoroughbred South African 

 ones, with dark wings. I will try and get you a skin of one some- 

 where. As I have friends in the Fish River, where they are numerous, 

 I will ask some of them to get me a skin. M. E. B." 



520. Numida Oristata, Pail.; simw, Nat. Misc. 



PL 757; Lath., Gen. His, VIIL, p. 14^; N. JEgyp- 



tiaca, Lath. ; Hart. O. W. Af., p. 200. 



GENERAL colour, black, profusely spotted with small blue 

 spots running into bars on some of the wing-feathers ; head 

 and neck bare, blue, with the exception of the chin and 

 threat, which are red ; top of head ornamented with a tuft of 

 black, stiffish feathers. Length 18" ; wing, 11". 



An inhabitant of Natal, according to M. J. Verreaux ; quoted by 

 Hartlaub, loc. cit. ; but I have never heard of any species from that 

 locality except the common N. Mitraia. I obtained the specimen 

 from which my description is taken at Zaneibar. 



The Fourth Family, TETRAONID^B, or 

 Grouse, 



have the bill more or less long, broad at the base, and the 

 sides compressed, with the culmen arched to the tip, which 

 is obtuse ; the nostrils basal, lateral, sometimes covered with 

 feathers, or protected with a naked hard scale ; the wings 

 short and rounded ; the tail more or less lengthened and 

 rounded ; the tarsi strong, sometimes clothed with plumes, or 

 naked and scutellated ; the hind toe moderate and elevated. 



The Sub-Family, PERDICIN^S, or Partridges, 



have the margins of the bill entire, and the nostrils protected 

 by a naked, hard scale ; the tarsi long, naked, covered in 

 front with divided scales, and sometimes armed with spurs, 

 or blunt tubercles. 



Genus FftANCOLINUS, Stephens. 



Bill more or less long, with the culmen at the base divicfing 

 the frontal plumes, and the apical half arched to the tip, 

 which is obtuse, and sometimes advancing much over that of 

 the lower mandible ; the sides compressed ; the nostrils 

 lateral, basal, the opening placed in a nasal groove, and 



