NOTES FROM NATAL. 255 



north and south of that district. Eeed observed a considerable 

 number- enjoying a gale of wind like Books in England-at 

 Howick. 



Heterocorax Capensis (Licht.), African Rook.— Like the last, 

 universally distributed between Maritzburg, or rather Howick 

 (about twelve miles up the road), and Newcastle. Gregarious, 

 feeding in small bands, never exceeding, perhaps, twenty in 

 number, attaching themselves to particular spots, and maintaining 

 a regular line of morning and evening flight. Several pairs bred 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of Newcastle, where eags 

 agreeing with those described by Layard, were taken both°by 

 Butler and Beid in September and October. Nests bulky, built 

 in isolated thorn trees, frequently close to farms or Kaffir 

 "kraals," composed of twigs lined warmly with hair. These 

 nests may be counted by dozens in the thorn bush near Lady- 

 smith, and all along the main road between that and Estcourt. 

 The call-note of this Crow is even more guttural and unmusical 

 than that of C. scapulatus. Butler furnishes the following 

 interesting notes regarding the nidification :— " Found a nest 

 containing fresh eggs about the 12th September, which were 

 unfortunately destroyed by Kafirs. The same pair built another 

 nest at once in an adjoining tree, but being again disturbed by 

 Kafirs deserted it before completion, and built a third nest at the 

 top of the tree m which the first nest had been placed. From 

 this last I took a single egg on the 2nd October. The birds 

 then built again in a low peach tree about ten yards off, but the 

 eggs were again destroyed by Kafirs on the 5th November The 

 Kafirs regard them as birds of ill omen, and consequently 

 destroy their nests and try to drive them away. Another nest 

 on a low tree by the side of the road between Colenso and 

 Ladysmith contained four fresh eggs on the 14th November 

 lhe eggs are not at all like Crow's eggs, but resemble rather 

 some of the Rails', especially those of the Indian White-breasted 

 Water Hen, Erythra jriiamicura." 



Buphaga erythrorhyncha (Stanl.), Red-billed Beef-eater — 

 Only seen at Durban on April 7th, where the arrival of a 

 flock on the backs of the horses belonging to the 7th Company 

 Royal Engineers, which had just landed from the troop-ship 

 almost produced a "stampede;" and from the railway near 

 Pmetown, perched on the backs of oxen (R). Does not, appa- 

 rently, occur any great distance inland. 



