54 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



This was the korenland kraai (cornland crow) of 

 the Dutch, Corvus segetum of Temminck. In size it is 

 identical with the black and white varieties, the 

 bonte kraai (spotted crow) and ringhals kraai 

 (ring-neck crow), but it is more commonly found in 

 the Western province, where the agricultural farms 

 are more plentiful. 



There is to be found upon the karroo, in addition 

 to the numerous game birds (always interesting to 

 the sportsman), a store of other birds, but little 

 noticed by the average passer-by, yet extremely 

 interesting to those who will take the trouble to look 

 for them. We had not much time, except at 

 outspans, to notice the smaller avi-fauna; but later 

 on, when staying upon these plains, we were much 

 interested in watching the wealth of feathered life 

 around. At one of our outspans this day, I shot 

 in a clump of doorn-boom (literally thorn-tree) or 

 mimosa bush, a bird of the woodpecker family, often 

 found in these regions. This was the Laimodon 

 unidentatus of the well-known traveller and naturalist, 

 Lichtenstein. Of a smallish size ; in colour, upon 

 its top, black, streaked with yellow, and having a rich 

 crimson forehead ; a stripe alternately yellow and 

 white extending over the eye to the back of the head, 

 and another white line down the side of the neck ; a 

 black gorget, a greyish stomach, and armed with a 

 strong black beak — this bird is always seen in pairs. 

 It is pretty readily capable of domestication, and is 

 often seen in the bushes or small trees near Karroo 

 farmhouses. Its cry consists of three notes, something 

 like "Poo-poo-poo." Doves, especially y£«a ca/imsw, 

 and many other birds abounded in this mimosa bush, 

 and the schaapwachter (shepherd) of the Boers, a 



