

BRITISH BIRDS IN SOUTH AFRICA 



Africa, but apparently never visits the south of that 

 continent. Montagu's harrier, a well-known British 

 species, is not common south of the Zambesi, though 

 it has occasionally been procured there. Like other 

 harriers, it is to be seen carefully beating the ground 

 ver which it passes, much after the fashion of a sport- 

 ing dog, in quest of reptiles, frogs, mice, and young 

 waterfowl. 



Quitting the birds of prey, we come to the nightjar 

 (Caprimulgus Europceus\ which, after spending the 

 summer with us, goes to Africa and Asia for the winter, 

 passing through the Nile Valley and East Africa. This 

 bird, it is worth noting, makes a somewhat shorter stay 

 with us than other migratory birds ; it does not reach 

 England, as a rule, until the beginning of May, and 

 by the end of September has departed for its winter 

 quarters in Africa. 



That ever-welcome visitor the chimney swallow is 

 familiar in many parts of South Africa. I have watched 

 it with feelings of keen delight in various parts of Cape 

 Colony, in the streets of Kimberley, perched on the 

 telegraph wires, on the wide grass plains of Bechuana- 

 land, and in the Transvaal. It was a pleasant thing 

 indeed to note these little wanderers, reminding one 

 of cooler northern climes amidst the parched scenes 

 of South Africa. The well-known European swift is 

 also common in South Africa. Most of the European 

 swallows leave Cape Colony for their northern tour by 

 the end of March. The swifts stay later in the South, 

 and do not finally disappear till late in April. There 

 can, I think, be little doubt that large numbers of 

 swallows and swifts seen in England during our 

 summer have "trekked" through the Dark Continent 

 from the shores of Southern Africa. 



The European roller (Coracias garrula) is better 



