NOTES FROM NATAL. 339 



with the culmen and tip of upper mandible horn-colour. Eggs 

 slightly enlarged in the ovary. 



Coturnix communis, Bonn., Common Quail. — Without at- 

 tempting to explain the migrations of this well-known bird, as far 

 as Natal is concerned, we will merely give in detail the various 

 occurrences that came under our notice. Reid saw five at 

 Sunday's River on the Gth May; Lieut. Giffard saw one near the 

 Leo Kop Mountain on the 9th July ; Butler shot one near 

 Newcastle about the same date; they appeared in considerable 

 numbers in the district early in October, when many specimens 

 were obtained ; and in the Maritzburg country they were simply 

 swarming in November and December. As many as one hundred 

 couple were shot here in one day by a party (though they were 

 breeding abundantly at the time). On the 2nd December Col. 

 Russell, 14th Hussars, informs us, his dogs flushed two sitting 

 birds from nests containing eggs. Are these the birds that breed 

 in North Africa and the South of Europe in the summer months? 

 If so, how is it that the thousands of birds that visit India in the 

 cold weather do not breed there ? In one case it looks as if they 

 bred twice in the year, and in the other as if they only bred once. 



Tumix lepurana (Smith), Hottentot Button Quail. — Only 

 once obtained in the neighbourhood of Newcastle by Feilden, 

 in August, though frequently seen. Observed also near Lady- 

 smith. Lieut. Giffard shot several when quartered at Pinetown. 



Struthio camelus, Linn., Ostrich. — Still found wild in limited 

 numbers on the Buffalo Flats near Newcastle, where Feilden 

 observed a small flock in the winter. Reid saw a single bird on 

 the plains between Dundee and Rorke's Drift in October. Butler 

 and Reid came across some broken fragments of egg-shells on 

 the veldt near the junction of the Ingagane and Buffalo Rivers, 

 in October ; the undoubted remains, according to a sporting Boer 

 farmer who was accompanying them, of a former nest. In a 

 domesticated state they are now to be met with in numbers 

 throughout the colony of Natal, where Ostrich-farming is rapidly 

 becoming popular. 



Otis kori, Burch., Kori Bustard ; Gom-Paauw. — Common in 

 the more open country between the Buffalo and the Drakensberg, 

 but not obtained in the immediate vicinity of Newcastle, where 

 its place is taken by E. liulw'ujii. Feilden killed a fine pair, 

 right and left, in the Leo Kop district. Several were obtained 



