157 ^ 



ZOOLOGICAL RAMBLES IN AND AROUND THE 

 TRANSVAAL. 



By W. L. Distant. 



In that very stirring Christmas week of 1895, and quite 

 unconscious that we were projecting a journey that, a few days 

 later, would have almost brought us in contact with Dr. Jameson 

 and his merrie men, my son and self decided to spend the 

 vacation at Rustenburg, there to collect, under the guidance of 

 that good field naturalist, W. Ayres, who has made the sleepy 

 spot his home for a number of years. We started on the after- 

 noon of December 22nd, driving a light cart, attended by our 

 Zulu "boy" John, and armed with necessary apparatus for a 

 successful ornithological and entomological raid. Guns, nets, a 

 taxidermal box of sundries, stifling-bottles, boxes, &c, helped to 

 crowd the already well-filled vehicle, and incited a wish that the 

 "roads" might not prove too heavy. 



After leaving Pretoria and passing through Daas Poort — a 

 spot ten days later to mark the nightly vigil of armed Boers — the 

 road crosses a level veld between two ranges of hills. Here one 

 may generally see an occasional Secretary Vulture, Serpentarius 

 secretarius, and as there is now not only a heavy penalty for 

 killing one of these birds, but also an inducement offered to the 

 "common informer" by giving him a share of the legal plunder, 

 the "Secretary" is seldom molested. It is, however, an over- 

 rated bird, so far as its snake- destroying propensities are 

 concerned; its usual food — and I have conducted more than one 

 post-mortem — consists of small lizards, especially Agama hispida, 

 and, in the season, orthopterous insects. To approach one of 

 these birds on the open veld with only a shot-gun is frequently a 

 vain quest. As you walk towards it, so does it walk away ; as you 

 quicken your pace the bird does the same. Still there are times 

 and seasons when a casual and nearer acquaintance is made, 

 though a rifle is the best weapon with which to supply a museum. 



