GAME BIRDS. 



General Remarks. 



[The Dutch term for all ground-roosting Francolins and Sand 

 Grouse is Patraise (partridge); tree-roosting Francolins, 

 Phaysaants (pheasants) ; Wild Duck, Vilde Hunders ; and 

 Wild Geese, Vilde Hanse. The Bechuanas call the Fran- 

 cohns Le shogho, singular ; Ma shogho, plural ; Wild Duck, 

 Dihudi; Wild Geese, Di peele-peele.'] 

 In referring to those varieties of game birds frequenting the Cape 

 Colony, Natal, and Bechuanaland, it must be understood that at the 

 present time no decent free shooting is actually obtainable in these 

 countries. Strict game laws are in existence, and close seasons have 

 been fixed, for all descriptions of feathered game, the varieties of the 

 Black Khoorhan — Otis afra and 0. afroides — ^for some unexplained 

 reason being alone excepted. The owners of the soil, both English 

 and Dutch, as a rule preserve the game on their properties, and 

 any person found shooting without permission is just as liable to 

 legal prosecution as anyone offending in the same manner in Eng- 

 land. The breeding season of the different varieties of feathered 

 game is extremely irregular all over South Africa, and the close 

 times vary so much in almost every district that space would not 

 permit of the different periods being set out in detail. A proclama- 

 tion appeared recently in the Bechuanaland Government Gazette^ 

 amending the game laws to the effect that the word " game " 

 should include Wild Duck, Wild Goose, and Snipe, and fixing a 

 uniform close season within the territory from the ist day of Sep- 

 tember to the last day of February. Although laws referring to 

 the subject exist in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, 

 they do not appear to be much enforced ; and if the Dutch farmers 

 themselves are not very enthusiastic in the preservation of winged 

 game, they are exceedingly jealous of strangers, and more particu- 



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