810 IVirds culleclt'd hy Mr. C. Grant in Sonlh Africa. 



is sharp and rather liarsl), usually uttered from the top of a 

 grass-stalk or stick. I have not discovered the nest. 



The soft parts are : — Irides liazel ; hill dark horn- 

 coloured^ lower mandible slatjMii parts; legs and toes brown.] 



292. Sphexceacus natalexsis. 



Z. Sibudeni, Nov., Jan. (2) ; Tv. Wakkerstroom, Apl. 



(1). 



f" Gauge" of Zulus. 



This species was only observed in Natal and Zululand and 

 the South-Eastern Transvaal. In habits, &c., it exactly 

 resembles S. africamts. The soft parts are also the same.] 



Sphexceacus traxsvaalensis. 



C. Grant, Bull. B.O. C. xxi. 1908, p. 92. 



Tv. Woodbush Hills, Nov., Dec. (type a J, Nov. 11, 

 190."), and 4 others). One nest with two eggs taken iu the 

 Woodbush Hills, Dec. 14th. 



I can hardly regai'd this species as distinguishable from 

 S. naf.uletisis, which it replaces iu the North-East Transvaal. 

 The crown is perhaps a shade darker rufous and the lower 

 parts are more ashy and less fulvous, ])ut it is founded on very 

 fine distinctions. Of the Transvaal examples in the British 

 ^Museum one from Swaziland is distinctly referable to S. natal- 

 ensis ; two others, one from ilustenburg and one from the 

 Swart Ruggens, also in the Rustenburg District, may perhaps 

 be united to the present race. The eggs closely resemble 

 those of the Cape species. 



[1 only found this Grass-bird on the hill-sides in the 

 Woodbu.-h Hills, where it frecpiented the long grass and 

 rough herbage ou the edges of the forests. In general habits, 

 call, and flight it resen)bles other members of the genus. 

 It iu'eeds during the suniuier season, and I took the nest, con- 

 taining two slightly incubated eggs, on the 14th of December, 

 1905. The nest, which was composed of fine grass with a few 

 dead leaves interwoven on the outside, was cup-shaped and 

 placed in the fork of a shrub in thick vegetation at the 

 ed'^v. of forest; it was within a foot of the ground. Only 

 tin; hen bii'd was ohsei'ved, and she was secured.] 



[Ti» Ije ro!itiiuuMl._| 



