(EDICNEMUS. 



81 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



It was discovered by Dr. Krauss in Natal (British. Museum), and has since been 

 obtained in that colony by Ayres (Gurney, Ibis, 1873, p. 259). An example in the 

 Stuttgard Museum from the Orange River may possibly have been collected by Krauss in 

 Basuto-Land. I have a skin in my collection sent by Kirk from the Zambesi, and it was 

 obtained in Masai-Land by Von der Decken. It is probably found throughout the valley of 

 the Orange River, as Verreaux received it from Namaqua-Land. Bocage describes it 

 accurately from Angola, but it is not known to have occurred in Damara-Land. Its range 

 extends into West Africa ; there are several fine examples in the Leyden Museum collected 

 by Biittikofer in Liberia. 



This species is somewhat intermediate between CE. crepitans and CE. senegalensis, Nearest 

 though perfectly distinct from either. In the former species the wing-coverts are crossed 

 by six more or less distinct bands — brown, white, brown, white, brown, white ; in the 

 latter the second, third, and fourth are merged in a broad grey band ; in CE. vermiculatus 

 the third and fourth only are merged in a broad grey band. 



When Graham Hutchinson and I were shooting at the mouth of the Umgeni River Habits. 

 in Natal, we came upon a party of these birds feeding on the mud-flats left by the receding 

 tide on the shores of the lagoon. Hutchinson told me that in the Transvaal he only found 

 it on the river-banks, never on the veldt where CE. capensis breeds. 



\ % ^s ^ 



(EDICNEMUS CAPENSIS. 



SOUTH-AFRICAN STONE-CURLEW. 



CEbicnemtjs tectricibus omnibus et scapularibus brunneo fasciatis. 



Diagnosis. 



M 



