352 BIBBS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



ing tanks and rivers. It breeds among rushes, forming a large flat nest 

 of sedge, and lays from six to ten eggs, similar in colour and size to 

 that of the preceding. 



654. Anas Sparsa, Smith, Zooi. s. Africa, PL 97; 



Ey ton's Anat., p. 142 ; Black-Duck of Sportsmen. 

 THROUGHOUT of a very dark-brown, finely mottled on the 

 head and neck with dirty-white, and marked on the wings 

 and tail with large pure white spots ; vent edged with white ; 

 across the wing is a bright-green bar, edged with black and 

 white ; the black nearest the green. Length. 22": win"-, 

 10"; tail, 5". 



The Black-Duck is solitary and shy in its habits, frequenting rivers, 

 under the banks of which it conceals itself during the day. It is 

 scarce, but generally distributed. I have received specimens from 

 Colesberg and Traka, and heard of it at Middelburg, where my late 

 friend, Mr. Jackson, shot several specimens. It may be distinguished 

 from all our other ducks by its dark plumage and abrupt white spots. 

 Mr. Atmore writes : " The common duck of the Oliphauts River 

 very shy delicious eating." 



655. Anas Flavirostris, Smith Zooi. s. Af, PL 



96 ; Ey ton's Anat., p. 141 ; A. X author hyncha, Forst. 



Desc. Ani., p. 4)5 ; Geelbec of Colonists and Sportsmen. 

 THROUGHOUT a light-brown, each feather broadly edged with 

 white, giving the whole a scaled appearance ; head and neck 

 minutely mottled with white; a broad green band, narrowly* 

 edged with black, and again by white, extends partially 

 across the wing ; bill bright-yellow, with the tip and centre 

 of upper mandible black. Length, 22"; wing, 9"; tail, 4". 



This is our commonest Duck, being abundant all over the colony 

 and South Africa generally. It is migratory, as indeed are all our 

 ducks, coming and going with the waters. It is usually seen in pairs, 

 male and female, and exhibits all the wariness and caution of its race. 

 They breed in considerable numbers at Vogel Yley, among the rushes 

 and rocks scattered over that lake. I am told that at one season of 

 the year the farmers in that neighbourhood assemble for a grand hunt 

 after these birds and the A. Erythrorhyncha. The method of hunting 

 is as follows : The shooters are posted in different parts of this long 

 sheet of water, hidden among the rushes and the bush-covered rocks 

 which jut out here and there in the shallows. Men are then sent 

 about with the long wagon whips,' and with these they beat the rushes 

 and keep up a continual cracking (and the crack of a Cape whip is 

 nearly equal to that of a gun) ; the wretched birds fly backwards and 

 forwards (having no other water within many miles), and as they pass 

 the ambuscades, are shot down ; when the day's butchery is over, the 

 dead and wounded are sought for, and usually fill many sacks. 



They construct their nests in the dry veldt at a distance from the 



