A Breath from the Veldt 



109 



and fracolins that I had been making for Mr, Ogilvie Grant of the British 

 Museum were entirely destroyed by beetles, so the eight specimens which I 

 had preserved were lost. However, on my return journey down country I 

 managed to get one specimen, an old cock whose portrait I give here. 



This bird I have shown to several of our leading ornithologists at home. 

 Dr. Sharpe of the British Museum, our best living authority on South African 

 birds, has been most kind in giving it his attention. He is of opinion that 

 it is an immature afroides, and does not think it a new species ; but I greatly 





doubt the correctness of this conclusion. The series of South African bustards 

 at the Museum is extremely poor, and as this bird differs in many points from 

 the common white-quilled black khoorhan, I shall continue to believe that 

 it is a new form of bustard until some one brings home a complete series of 

 the common bird showing the connecting links. 



It may seem presumption on my part to dispute so eminent an authority 

 as Dr. Sharpe, to whose kindness I am much indebted, but I consider he is as 

 much handicapped as I am by lack of specimens for comparison. My hope 

 is that some traveller or dweller in South Africa, who is something more than 

 a pot-hunter, may, in the interest of science, send home to our Museum a 



