THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 315 



our own poultry yards, it is not very dissimilar 

 in general appearance, save that its colour is 

 darker, and the white mottlings are more noticeable. 

 It is found gregariously and in abundance in 

 the dense bush-veldt country near the Sunday 

 and Great Fish Rivers, and upon the northern 

 borders near the Orange River, as well as more 

 sparingly in other bushy or semi-bushy localities. 

 We shot some of these birds on our way up 

 and down country between Uitenhage and Graaff 

 Reinet ; near the Sunday River they were especially 

 plentiful, and, like all their kind, we found them 

 feeble in flight, but great runners and roosters. 

 In the evening they may be sometimes shot 

 with a bullet while roosting in low trees near the 

 water. 



The sand-grouse family is represented in the 

 Cape Colony by the well-known " Namaqua 

 partridge," as it is called all over South Africa. 

 This bird, the Pterocles tachypetes of Temminck, 

 the Namaqua grouse of Shaw, and Namaqua patrys 

 of the Boers, abounds upon every karroo plain of 

 the Colony ; and towards evening, when flying to 

 water, may be often witnessed in great flocks, and 

 numbers may then be shot. In general colour this 

 bird is a dull ashy brown ; the back is of a darker 

 shade and mottled, while the wing feathers are 

 dark brown. Between the chest and stomach are 

 two bands, one white, the other reddish brown. The 

 throat and chin are yellow. In length this bird 

 extends to about eleven inches. Its long and 

 pointed wings denote great powers of flight. The 

 legs are very short, and the feet feathered, and when 

 seen, as it often may be, running about the karroo. 



