246 On Birds of a Bloemfontein Garden.


The little Red-capped Lark ( Tephrocorys cinereal) simply

swarms here and is found in winter in flocks like our English

Skylark, which it much resembles in flight and note, except

that it does not sing. I picked up a very feeble one in immature

plumage, which was quite weak through having its ears and head

smothered in huge ticks. These I cleaned off and the bird was

soon quite flourishing in my aviary, where it shared the floor

with another common species here, the Grey-backed Finch-Lark

{Pyrrhulauda verticalis).


I was in the Kalahari Desert some time ago, and while

waiting at a water-hole to shoot Sandgrouse hundreds of these

little Pyrrhulaudas , both of this species and the little dark one

called the Dark-naped Lark (Z 5 . australis ) came for their morning

drink, and it was most remarkable to notice their great numbers

and extreme tameness.


The little Streep Kopje (stripe-head) or Cape Bunting

(Fruigillaria capensis ) is always pottering about on the stones,

singing his monotonous little song, and this little bird and his

cousin the Lark-like Bunting ( Fimpetuani ), who is equally

common, frequents all the gardens.


Three species of Starlings are here in winter: the Green

Glossy Starling (. Lamprocolius phcenicopterns bispecularis), locally

called ‘ glass-eye ’ from its orange irides, the Common Spreo

(Spreo bicolor ), and the interesting Wattled Starling ( Dilophus

canmculatus), which goes about in company with .S. bicolor in the

winter. In the summer it goes off to the thickly bushed part of

the country, where it builds a nest like a Magpie, but breeds in

colonies or collections of nests. It is on the protected list through¬

out the year ; I don’t quite see why it is necessary to protect it,

as no one shoots it or worries about it, and it is very wild and

well able to take care of itself. Moreover, I do not believe it

kills as many locusts as the framers of the law for its protection

give it credit for. Spreo bicolor nests in holes in banks as a rule,

and lays a large blue egg of the usual Starling pattern.


This list comprises most of the commoner birds that are

seen from time to time, but I have taken 110 account of the

various hawks and eagles that come by day, nor of the owls that

worry the birds in my aviary by night; I trust, however, these

notes will be of some interest to aviculturists at home.



