266 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



stay, some of the cuckoos that were just beginning 

 to arrive in these regions, known in the Colony by 

 the quaint name Piet-mijn-vrouw — dark grey birds, 

 with reddish breasts and dirty white stomachs 

 with black cross-bars. Le Vaillant calls this bird 

 Le coucou solitaire, and Cuvier, Cuculus solitarius. 

 Its Dutch name, Piet-mijn-vrouw, is obviously 

 bestowed upon it from its call, which sounds not 

 unlike those words. We had noticed, a day or two 

 before, another and rarer cuckoo — Klaas's cuckoo — 

 Mietje of the Boers, Le coucou de Klaas of the 

 bird-loving Le Vaillant, who named it after his. 

 favourite Hottentot. This lovely cuckoo, dis- 

 tinguished by its brilliant green upper plumage, its 

 snow-white under parts and its white tail, centre 

 barred and tipped with green, is not common in the 

 Witteberg valleys, and the specimen we shot was 

 probably the forerunner of the numbers that move 

 to the Knysna Forest towards the end of the year. 

 The green back of this charming bird has a very 

 noticeable coppery metallic sheen upon it, and 

 further, the white lines over each eye, and the green 

 splash of feathers on both sides of the chest, add to 

 its distinction. Le Vaillant's enthusiasm over this 

 little beauty is not to be wondered at. The hen 

 bird is chiefly distinguished from her mate by the 

 brown markings upon her green back. 



Not long after we had secured the spring-haas, 

 a pair of purple herons, evidently winging their 

 flight to our river, turned off from their course 

 almost immediately overhead. They were flying 

 carelessly and low, and had not noticed us in the 

 mimosa grove, hereabouts pretty thick, and for one 

 of them the mistake was fatal. We had not killed 



