no THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



\_About the same size, and very much resembling in appearance 

 and in m-anner of flight the common English grey plover. General 

 colour, greyish brown; throat, dirty yellow ; feathers of back mottled 

 with dark brown and bright buff, each one marked -with a purplish 

 spot ; wings, blackish brown ; two bands divide the breast from the 

 belly, the upper dirty white, and the under, rufous ; belly, purplish; 

 two or three of the tail feathers long and running gradually to 

 a sharp point; legs, feathered.'] 



The Namaqua " Partridge " (under which name it is always desig- 

 nated in South Africa) is very common indeed throughout all the 

 Karoo districts of the Cape Colony and Little Namaqualand, but it 

 seldom occurs much South of the Hex River Pass. Although plenti- 

 ful in Griqualand West, it becomes less so Northward, and in the 

 lower portions of the Transvaal and Bechuanaland gradually gives 

 way to another species somewhat similar, and known as the Double- 

 banded Sand Grouse {P. bicinctus). It is generally met with in pairs, 

 and frequents the red sandy plains so common to the country, 

 feeding principally on the very small black and hard seeds of a 

 species of creeping plant indigenous to the arid wastes. When 

 squatting on the ground it can only be distinguished with difficulty, 

 and will permit of very near approach before rising on the wing, 

 which it does with startling commotion. The flight, however, being 

 rapid, and at first irregular, it is not by any means a very easy bird 

 to bag. During the winter months, when the summer rain-pools 

 are exhausted, the Namaquas and two other varieties of Sand Grouse 

 gather indiscriminately together, and resort morning and evening in 

 large flocks to the permanent dams and vleys. The flights occur 

 between eight and half-past nine in the morning, and for half-an-hour 

 before and ten minutes after sun-set, at which time their approach 

 is heralded by their incessant sharp cries, " chuck-a-wee," which is 

 only uttered while on the wing. Before drinking they fly round in 

 repeated circles, and then descend almost perpendicularly to the 

 water with such velocity as to cause a hissing sound, and, delaying 

 only for a short time after drinking, are again off" to their feeding 

 grounds. Some of the permanent water pans in the Karoo, Damara- 



* In the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of February 18, 1890, Dr. P. L. Solater 

 lemaiks that the " Guinea Fowl of the Zambesi referred to by Capt. Sterling, Mr. Mliot, 

 and Dr. Sharpe as If. pucherani is not that species, but is a species more closely allied to 

 N. crisiata." There are specimens of this bird at present in the Zoological Gardens. 



