THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. II 5 



reddish brown, front of same and chesty white ; wings mottled with 

 white and dark brown ; tail barred transversely with four black or 

 very dark brown streaks.} 



This Bustard is now getting very rare, but may be met with 

 occasionally throughout the Cape Colony, Natal, and the Orange 

 Free State, and is also said to be an occasional visitor to the 

 Transvaal, but is unknown in the other portions of South Africa. 

 Its habits and resorts are similar to the Stanley Bustard, but it may 

 be met with much more in the coast direction, and it is not long 

 since several specimens were observed on the Cape Flats, within a 

 few miles of Cape Town. The flesh is also very good. 



The Black-bellied Khoorhan {Oiis melanogaster). Fig. 39, 

 Frontispiece. 



\_Body long and slender, about double the size of the common 

 Black Khoorhan^ the hen bird of which it somewhat resembles in 

 colour. General colour above, mottled ashy grey, covered rather 

 regularly with large black arrow-shaped spots; tail a shade darker 

 than the body, with several small transverse black bands; a large 

 portion of the wings white; a black narrow stripe extends down the 

 front of the neck and joins the belly, which is uniformly of the same 

 colour, black; head considerably crested. The fluffy, pinkish, under 

 down of the feathers fades after death, as in the Vaal Khoorhan 

 — O. scolopacea.J 



This bird is now rare, but it is said to be met with in Natal. On 

 the high plateau of Mashonaland, however, and particularly in the 

 neighbourhood of Fort Salisbury, it is pretty common. In the 

 alluvial plains immediately North of Lake 'Ngami it is also to be 

 found, and is there called by the natives Kori ea le-claka (reed Kori). 

 Owing to a thin layer of oily fat lying immediately beneath, it is a 

 very difficult bird to skin. When come across in reeds and long 

 grass it will at first invariably attempt concealment before getting on 

 the wing. Its habits are solitary. 



The Black Khoorhan {Otis afrd). 



{Size of the male bird about that of a cock pheasant, the hen being 

 smaller and lighter in colour. Back, wings, under portion of head, 

 neck, breast, and body velvety black; ears white; back and upper 



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