Section XI. South Africa. 

 By L. N. G. EAMSAY, M.A., B.Sc. 



AFTER spending twelve days at Cape Town, the Scotia left Table Bay on May 17th. 

 Her course lay northward along the coast, and next forenoon she lay to off Dassen 

 Island, one of the islands where the Jackass Penguins (Spheniscus demersus) nest 

 under protection. A permit had been obtained for collecting here, but the heavy 

 surf prevented a landing being made. Saldanha Bay was reached the same evening, 

 and here the vessel anchored for two or three days. A small collection of birds, 

 comprising eight species, was made here, and about midday on the 21st the anchor 

 was weighed and the Scotia left for St Helena. 



The Saldanha Bay collection includes the following : 



Phalacrocorax capensis (Sparrm.). Two immature skins, shot off Marcus Island, 

 May 21st, 1904. 



This is one of four species of Phalacrocorax which frequent the coasts of South 

 Africa. It is said to be extraordinarily abundant along the west coast.* 



Numerous other shags or cormorants were seen off the coast at Saldanha Bay, and 

 on Meeuw Island, a tiny islet in the bay, their nesting-places were found. Dr 

 Rudmose Brown describes these as follows t : " On low acacia-bushes the shags one 

 year build a platform of twigs and grass with perhaps a dozen nests on the same level, 

 next year a second platform with some new nests is built above the former one, and 

 so on year by year, each successive series of nests covering the previous one, until one 

 finds a stack higher than a man, of ten to fifteen years' growth. Often, on pulling 

 such a stack to pieces, deserted eggs of years ago may be discovered." 



Larus dominicanus Licht. Two skins are in the collection, an adult and an 

 immature (probably second year's bird), shot on May 19th on the shore at Saldanha 

 Bay, where these gulls were numerous. This species is very common all round the 

 coasts of South Africa, breeding on islands off the north-west and south coasts. 



Lai-us hartlaubi (Bruch.). Two adults and a young bird are in the Saldanha Bay 

 collection. This gull is very common along the west coast of the colony. 



The young bird mentioned above has the quills and tail-feathers about half-grown 

 (the wing measures 6'8 ins., as against 1075 for the adult). It is remarkable for the 

 absence of any trace of a terminal dark band on the tail, which is pure white. A dark 



* Fauna of S. Africa: Birds, by A. C. Stark and W. L. Sclater, vol. iv. p. 7 (the information regarding the status 

 in South Africa of the following species from Saldanha Bay is also taken from this source). 

 t The Voyage of the "Scotia," p. 277. 



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