3J2 BIRDS OP SOUTH AFRICA. 



of &e hinder part of neck, dark iridescent-green ; from the 

 back of the head emanate two long, narrow, and pure white 

 plumes, eight inches long ; legs yellow ; irides in adult bird 

 the same ; in young birds light reddish-madder. The young 

 bird is of a dirty-grey, mottled with white. Length, 24" ; 

 wing, 13"; tail, 5". 



The Night- Heron is generally distributed throughout the colony ; but 

 appears to be nowhere common. It certainly breeds somewhere in the 

 neighbourhood of Cape Town, as a young bird, still showing the down, 

 was brought to me from Zeekoe Yley, on the Simon?s Bay road. 



Genus SCOPUS, Brisson. 



Bill long, with the culmen elevated to the base, keeled and 

 curved to the tip, which is hooked, the sides much com- 

 pressed, and grooved near the culmen from the base to the 

 tip ; the gonys long, and curved upwards ; the nostrils basal 

 and lateral, with the opening linear, exposed, and partly 

 closed by a membranous scale ; wings long, with the third 

 and fourth quills equal and longest ; tail short and even ; 

 tarsi longer than the middle toe, compressed, and covered 

 with small reticulated scales ; toes moderate ; the outer 

 longer than the inner ; both are united at the base by a mem- 

 brane, which extends along the sides to the tip ; the hind 

 toe moderate, and even with the others ; the claws rather 

 short, and slightly curved. 



593. Scopus Umbretta, Gmei. ; PL Eni. 796 ; 



Ardea Fusca, Forst. ; Cephus Scopus, Wagl. ; Ham- 

 mer/cop of Colonists. 



GENERAL colour, a warm brown ; glossed with purple ; tail 

 with a broad bar at the tip, and numerous narrow ones ; 

 head much crested; bill black. Length, 20"; wing, 18J"; 

 tail, 6". 



The " Hammerlcop '* (literally, Hammerhead) is found throughout the 

 colony, and all the way to the Zambezi, frequenting ponds, marshes, 

 rivers, and lakes. It is a strange, weird bird, flitting about with great 

 activity in the dusk of the evening, aad preying upon frogs, small 

 fish, &c At times, when two or three are feeding in the same small 

 pool, they will execute a singular dance, skipping round one another, 

 opening and closing their wings, and performing strange antics. 



They breed on trees and on rocky ledges, forming a huge structure 

 of sticks, some of them of considerable thickness. These nests are so 

 solid, that they will bear the weight of a large, heavy man on the domed 

 roof without collapsing. The entrance is a small hole, generally 

 placed in the most inaccessible side. The eggs, three to five in number, 

 are pure white : axis, 1" 9"' ; diam., 1" 4'". 



On my late friend Jackson's farm, at Nel's Poort, there is a singular 

 rocky glen between two hills. In this spot, a beautiful permanent 



