424 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



overhanging the river, about a mile above the drift, on the main 

 Newcastle road. Here Reid obtained specimens, and had a good 

 opportunity of observing their habits ; but he was unable, un- 

 fortunate^, to ascertain if they bred there. As many as 100 

 made use of these cliffs at roosting-time, leaving in small bands 

 long before sunrise for their feeding grounds in the marshy tracts 

 on the veldt, and returning in the same order about sundown, 

 uttering their loud and weird cries the while. There were 

 smaller roosting-places lower down the river, but the species 

 was certainly not common elsewhere in the Newcastle district. 

 We are informed on the very best authority that these birds are 

 most delicious eating, — " fit for the Prince of Wales," as one man 

 described them ; and Butler also pronounces them to be excellent 

 birds for the table, in fact better than the " Knorhaan," being 

 more tender and highly flavoured. Butler adds the following note 

 on its nidification : — "Found a nest at Colenso, on the 13th 

 November. It was an ordinary stick nest, well lined with dry 

 grass, and placed in the fork of a low bough overhanging a well- 

 wooded stream running out of the Tugela River, and about seven 

 feet from the ground. It contained three incubated eggs of a 

 light dingy olive-green colour, smudged over with dark brown, and 

 very unlike the ordinary type of Ibis eggs. The nest was solitary, 

 and the hen bird flew off close to me as I approached it, uttering 

 its peculiar call. I saw no other birds of that species near 

 the spot, but they may notwithstanding sometimes build in 

 groups " (B). 



Geronticus calvus (Bodd.), " Wild Turkey." — We were some- 

 what astonished to hear that Wild Turkeys were to be found in 

 the country, on our first arrival, and equally astonished to find 

 out what was intended by the name. They are not uncommon 

 near Newcastle, several specimens being obtained in the winter. 

 Reid shot a lovely one at the Ingagane on the 7th July, and saw 

 others there ; he also observed them, paired, at Rorke's Drift on 

 the 3rd October. They breed on the steep banks of the Buffalo 

 or its tributaries in this neighbourhood, as Butler heard of several 

 nests, some with eggs and others containing young birds ; but we 

 had no opportunity of examining the nests ourselves. Butler 

 adds that he found them very good eating. 



Numenius arquatus (Linn.), Curlew. — Single examples occa- 

 sionally met with on the vleys in September and October, as shy 



