OTIDiE OTIS 295 



p. 385 ; Bendall, Ibis, 1896, p. 176 ; Bryden, Nature and Sport, p. 41 

 (1897) ; Millais, Breath from the Veldt, 2nd ed., pp. 49, 111, 336, 

 with sketches (1899) ; Beichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 254 (1900) ; 

 Haagner, Ibis, 1902, pp. 574, 580. 

 Lissotis leucoptera, Beichenb., Handb. Gall. pi. 254 (1848). 

 Eupodotis afroides, Laijard, B. S. Afr. p. 287 (1867) ; Gurneij, Ibis, 

 1868, p. 48 (Upper Natal) ; Layard, Ibis, 1869, p. 375 ; Gurney in 

 Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 260 (1872) ; Buehley, Ibis, 1874, p. 385 ; 

 Ayres, Ibis, 1877, p. 347, 1880, p. 265. 

 Eupodotis afra, {nee Linn.) Barratt, Ibis, 1876, p. 192 ; Shelley, Ibis, 



1882, p. 362 [Bommingani Pan] . 

 Compsotis leucoptera, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 294 (1894) ; Oates, 

 Cat. B. Eggs, ii, p. 365 (1902) ; Sharpe, Ibis, 1904, p. 13 [Deelfontein]. 

 Afrotis afroides, Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 184 (1896). 

 Description. Adult male. — Closely resembling 0. afra iu every 

 respect except that the primaries after the first are white to a great 

 extent on the inner web, the tips alone being black, while the under 

 wing-coverts and the quills from below are also white. 



Iris light tawny brown ; bill greyish-brown ; the basal half 

 pale rose-pink, changing after death to pale chrome-yellow ; tarsi 

 and feet gamboge-yellow. 



Length about 21 ; wing 10-0 ; tail 5'0 ; culmen 1'2 ; tarsus 3'4. 

 The female differs from the female of C. afra in exactly the same 

 respects as does the male. Wing 10-0 ; tarsus 3'0. 



Distribution. — The "White-quilled Knorhaan replaces the Black 

 Knorhaan northwards from the northern part of the Karoo through 

 Bechuanaland and the Orange Eiver Colony as far as Damaraland 

 proper and the Transvaal. It has not been met with, so far as I 

 am aware, north of the Limpopo* 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony — Deelfontein 

 resident (Seimund), Orange Eiver Valley (Bradshaw) ; Hart's Eiver 

 near Taungs (Holub), Setlagoli near Mafeking (Bryden) ; Natal — 

 Upper districts (Ayres) ; Orange Eiver Colony — near Philippolis 

 (Holub), Winburg (Barratt); Transvaal — Potchefstroom (Ayres), 

 near Wolmeranstad (Hamilton), Barberton (Eendall), near Johan- 

 nesburg (Haagner) ; Bechuanaland— Bommingani Pan (Ayres), Bot- 

 letli (Bryden) ; German South-west Africa — Great Namaqualand 

 and Damaraland, common (Andersson and Fleck). 



Habits. — This Knorhaan does not differ from the Black Knor- 

 haan in habits. It is found usually in pairs in the open country, 

 and is exceedingly noisy, rising when approached with a loud and 

 harsh cackle and generally circling round high up in the air and 

 settling again very soon. The females, which are not nearly so 



