354 Mr. A. H. Evans— Bird-Notes 



single individual until the bare country north of the Tugela 

 was reached, when a few were seen from the train, and 

 exactly the same happened with regard to the Blue Crane 

 (Tdrapteryx paradisca) and the Bustards. The last-named 

 it was impossible to identify. 



We spent Sunday, August 27th, at Ladysmith, and devoted 

 our chief attention to a kopje near the town and the river, 

 which was covered in its upper parts by flowering aloes. 

 Here birds were fairly plentiful, and we again had a good 

 view of Nectarinia famosa. Canaries and small Finch-like 

 birds were not uncommon, Laniarius starki was seen for the 

 first time, and Bulbuls (Pycnonotus layardi) were breeding, 

 though a nest of the latter that we found was barely ready 

 for eggs. Two species of Sand-Martin (Cotile paludicola and 

 C. cincta) were hawking in the sun over the river near the 

 shelters dug in the banks during the siege, and butterflies 

 were exceptionally abundant. It was dark when the train 

 left the town, and by the morning we had passed through 

 the tunnel at Laing's Nek and were close to Johannesburg, 

 where the mines were the chief attraction, and the country, 

 so far as we saw it, was nearly destitute of birds. 



On Thursday, August 31st, we made an excursion to 

 Pretoria, a delightful, though hot, town, with its well- 

 known Zoological Gardens, in which I spent most of the 

 day. All kinds of birds from Ostriches down to the smallest 

 Passerine forms were there to be seen in the enclosures ; 

 but to me the chief attraction was the large double aviary 

 full of many species, and Weaver-birds in particular, the 

 nesting-habits of which it was most interesting to watch. 

 The way in which the larger kinds wrangled with the 

 grass-blade, bit it, bent it, and pushed it through the half- 

 completed structure was most amusing, while their habit of 

 hurrying to the other side of the nest-wall to weave in the 

 end that had been just pushed through or to see if it had 

 penetrated properly was almost human in its intelligence. 

 The other species were not breeding, but at a pond in the 

 Gardens a pair of birds resembling "Reed-Warblers were 

 particularly busy among the tall grasses. 



On Friday, September 1st, a party of botanists and zoolo- 



