aSDICNEMID^ CEDICNEMUS 317 



streaks ; under tail-coverts pale cinnamon ; axillaries white with 

 dusky shaft-stripes; under wing-coverts white tipped with dusky. 

 Eye very large. 



Iris bright yellow ; bill black, pale greenish-yellow at the base ; 

 legs and feet yellow, dark along the front. 



Length 18'5; wing 9-0 ; tail 4-75; culmen 1-5 ; tarsus 3-7. 



The sexes are alike. Young birds appear to be rather paler 

 throughout. 



Distribution. — The Dikkop is found all over South Africa from 

 Cape Town to the Zambesi, but appears to become scarcer in 

 Mashonaland and the extreme north. It is said to be partially 

 migratory but its movements are irregular. Beyond our limits the 

 Dikkop ranges to Angola on the west and through Nyasaland and 

 East Africa as far north as Khartoum and Massowa on the Eed Sea 

 in the east, if, as is stated by Eeichenow, CE. affinis is identical with 

 our species. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony — Cape, Malmesbury, 

 Bredasdorp, Hanover and Namaqualand divisions (S. A. Mus.), 

 Port Elizabeth and East London (Eickard), Colesberg (Ortlepp), 

 Deelfontein, common (Seimund), Orange Eiver near Aliwal North 

 (Whitehead), King WilHam's Town (Trevelyan), Spaldings in 

 Barkly West division, February (Ayres) ; Natal — Isipingo, Maritz- 

 burg and Zululand (Woodward), Newcastle, May, June (Eeid) ; 

 Orange Eiver Colony — Vredefort Eoad, April (B. Hamilton), 

 Basutoland, early winter (Murray) ; Transvaal — Pilandsberg, July, 

 Potchefstroom, April and December (Ayres), near Johannesburg 

 (Haagner), Marico and Swaziland (Bt. Mus.); Bechuanaland — 

 Kanye (Exton), Tati (Bradshaw), Nocana, July (Fleck) ; Ehodesia 

 — Buluwayo, November [(Ayres), Mashonaland, scarce (Marshall); 

 German South-west Africa — Great Namaqualand and Damaraland 

 (Andersson) ; Portuguese Bast Africa— Tete (Kirk in Bt. Mus.). 



Habits. — The Dikkop is found in open country on stony flats 

 or along the slopes of low hills ; in the shooting season it is generally 

 met with in small parties, though no doubt it pairs in the breed- 

 ing time. As a rule it tries to escape notice by crouching, 

 though it runs very well and fast, with curious jerks forward of 

 its head every few yards. When flushed its flight is very silent, 

 but it sometimes utters a loud and somewhat doleful note, 

 "cherara," three times repeated. It is a somewhat nocturnal 

 bird, seeking for its food, which consists of insects and seeds, after 

 dusk. Its flesh, though black, is excellent and much esteemed, so 



