30 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



the ground much as does the hen harrier of our 

 own country. 



Having sufficiently reconnoitred, and noted with 

 our field-glass the sage and stately secretary birds — 

 until, having somewhat too obtrusively attracted 

 their attention, they coursed rapidly away across 

 the plain — we resumed our trek, and once more at 

 close of day found shelter in an accommodation- 

 house, where, after supper, we discoursed sweet 

 music and song to an appreciative, if scanty, 

 audience. 



Next morning, soon after dawn, and the 

 invariable and ever- welcome coffee, we were indus- 

 triously pursuing our journey over a dry karroo 

 country, broken occasionally by slight hills and shallow 

 valleys. In some of these undulations, among mimosa 

 and other flowering bushes, the tall aloes towered 

 aloft to a great height, glorious in their rich spikes 

 of flower, some blood-red, some of a lovely pink 

 hue. Many of the choicest wild plants of South 

 Africa were passed in this region — the bright-red 

 cotyledon, and many kinds of crassula and protea, 

 and others whose names I know not, while the 

 African briony, or wild vine, frequently clambered 

 luxuriantly over the brush. 



Amid this wealth of flower life we noticed large 

 numbers of the showy sunbirds, sometimes also 

 called sugar or honey birds, which are found in 

 profusion all over this favoured land. So attractive 

 were they that we stopped once or twice to obtain 

 specimens — not a difficult matter — and were 

 successful in shooting half-a-dozen of these charming 

 birds. Amongst these we had, after a little com- 

 parison, no difficulty in identifying the Nectarinia 



