50 A Breath from the Veldt 



when on the wing — at times a matter of importance, as saving him a wearisome 

 tramp after game that he either does not want or is not likely to get near 

 enough to shoot. For, unlike the Blue khoorhan, who by a little skilful 

 manoeuvring can generally be got to " squat," the Vaal species are always on 

 the alert, and so often rise out of shot, that one's love for the bird is not always 

 requited by possession. The calls of the two species are so much alike that (as 

 they say in Yorkshire) " one can hardly tell t'other from which " ; but see 

 them as they are alighting on the ground, and you will not fail to recognise 

 the difference. The Blue khoorhans flutter gently to the earth in a vertical 

 line — one bird following another — and generally settle close together, whereas 

 the Vaal khoorhans take a zig-zag course, something like the letter N, and 

 then scatter and settle independently, each bird following his own fancy as to 

 where he may alight. The flight of the two species is also distinctly different, 

 that of the Blue khoorhan being steady and direct, while the Vaal" khoorhan 

 delights to play about in the air before taking headers to the ground. 



These Vaal khoorhans are the commonest bustards in the country, and are 

 met with even as far north as the Zoutpansberg Mountains. They love the 

 open grass lands, and veldt sparsely covered with mimosa bush, and in the 

 neighbourhood of a river you may see them playing together like children of 

 the air, accompanying their gyrations with wild music of the anserine sort. 

 The Dutch are hardly complimentary to the bird. They call him " Dikkop " ^ 

 (Thick-head), from his appearance when wounded, the feathers of his head and 

 neck standing out then in unbecoming fashion. But he is a beautiful bird for 

 all that ; the upper parts of the neck and back a rich reddish brown with 

 numerous black markings ; head black, with a blue-grey border round the 

 crown ; back of bird and chin black (and, in old males, a soft French grey in 

 front of the neck) and elsewhere an exquisite flush of rosy pink that extends 

 right under his body. Unlike the Blue khoorhan, however, his colour changes 

 rapidly after death, and within six months he hardly looks like the same bird. 

 This is especially noticeable in those shot after the month of July. The colour 

 goes at once, like that of two equally lovely birds of our own circumpolar 

 world — Ross's Rosy Gull [Larus Rossi) and the Roseate Tern [Sterna Rosea)? As 

 to size, they may compare with the female capercailzie, being somewhat heavier 



1 Not to be confused with "Dikkop," the great Thick-knee, common throughout South Africa. 



2 On my way northwards I was at considerable trouble in preparing a large collection of francolins and 

 bustards for my friend Mr. Ogilvie Grant of the British Museum ; but, to my great disappointment, the 

 female of this bird was the only one that escaped destruction by small beetles, only too well known in 

 South Africa. 



