Mr. T. Ayres on the Ornithology of Transvaal. 111 
I may mention that the hen bird sent by Mr. Ayres differs 
from Sir A. Smith’s plate of the male* in the following par- 
ticulars (in addition to the absence of the crest referred to by 
Mr. Layard), viz. :—The crown of the head is mottled with 
two shades of brown, similar to those which appear on the 
mantle; the slaty cheek-stripe and black throat-stripe are 
wanting; the throat and chin are white; the neck, above 
and below, and the upper breast are mottled with two shades 
of brown; a white pectoral band divides the mottled brown 
of the upper breast from the black of the lower breast and 
abdomen; and the white on the lesser wing-coverts 1s some- 
what more extended. This last remark applies equally to 
the male sent by Mr. Ayres, which also differs from Sir A. 
Smith’s plate in having the throat of a creamy white on either 
side of the black stripe, in the presence of pale drab feathers 
scattered amongst the slaty-blue feathers of the cheek-stripe, 
of many such feathers amongst the slate-coloured plumage of 
the sides of the neck, and also in the presence of several 
white feathers on both sides of the upper breast, forming an 
imperfect pectoral band in place of the complete white band 
which characterizes the breast of the female. With these 
exceptions, Mr. Ayres’s male agrees with Sir A. Smith’s figure ; 
and the points in which it differs from it are, no doubt, due 
either to the remains of immature plumage, or to the com- 
menced assumption of winter dress.—J. H. G.] 
(Hprcnemus capensis, Licht. Spotted Thicknee. 
This species is sparsely distributed all over the Transvaal ; 
at least in every part where I have been. 
Cursorius rufus, Gould. Burchell’s Courser. 
This Courser is not nearly so common in the Rustenburg 
district asin that of Potchefstroom ; but afew are occasionally 
to be met with. 
ARDEOLA comAta (Pall.) Squacco Heron. 
Male in full breeding-dress, Potchefstroom, 25th October. 
Irides very pale chrome-yellow ; bare skin round the eye, 
gape, and bill about the nostrils bright grass-green ; tip of 
* Vide ‘Zoology of South Africa,’ Aves, pl. 4. 
