THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 313 



tops of hills, surrounded on every side by scenery of 

 surpassing beauty. 



The red-wing francolin, or "partridge" {Franco- 



linus Le Vaillantii), is, to my mind, taken all round, 



one of the handsomest and most representative of 



South African game birds. In size it slightly exceeds 



the grey- wing, but in colouring it far outvies that bird. 



In general colour it is not dissimilar, but the markings 



are much darker and brighter. Thin white stripes, 



liiottled with black, run from the beak, over each 



eye, to the back of the head, where they unite and 



extend further. A similar stripe runs under the eye 



across the ear, trending to the chest, where it 



broadens into a crescent not unlike the white gorget 



of the ring ousel of this country, but bigger. A 



beautiful rich orange-red band surrounds the eye, 



passes over the ear, then widens and spreads 



backward to the neck and forward to the white 



crescent upon the chest. The front part of the 



throat is of the same rich colour. The chest 



beneath the white crescent, the stomach, and sides 



are beautifully coloured with dark rufous and brown 



mottlings, and the insides of the wing feathers are 



dark rufous — from whence the bird takes its name. 



In a deep, far extending kloof or glen, some miles 



from Naroekas Poort, through which meandered a 



small stream, these fine birds abounded, and here 



we often had very excellent sport with them. They 



lie, as I have before mentioned, often with 



extraordinary tenacity, and especially in the thick 



palmiet bordering the streams, and in long grass, 



they can sometimes hardly be forced to rise. In 



some localities they are found on higher ground, like 



the grey-wing partridge, but, as a rule, they are not 



