SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
243 
ing meadows in every dire£lion ; a circumftance from which 
Colonel Gordon probably v/as induced to give it the name of 
the Compafs Mountain, On the fouth-eaft fide is the fource of 
the Sunday river. On all the others are fprings whofe ftream- 
lets unite at no great diftance from their fources, and flow 
diredly to the north. The general furface of the country, on 
the northern fide of the mountain, is at leaft fifteen hundred 
feet above the fource of the Sunday river ; and the height of 
the peak above this general furface was found, by trigonome- 
trical meafurement, to be alfo very nearly fifteen hundred feet. 
The rills of water that meandered through the meadows 
were covered with the common reed, and thefe were fre- 
quented with vaft flocks of fmall birds, particularly with the 
loxia orixy called by Englifh ornithologifts the granadier^ and 
by the French, the cardinal of the Cape of Good Hope. The 
male is remarkable for its gaudy plumage during the fpring 
and fummer months : in thefe feafons the neck, breafl, back, 
upper and under part of the rump, are of a bright crimfon ; 
the throat and abdomen are glofTy black. During the other 
fix months it is flripped of its gaudy attire, and adopts the 
modeft garb of the female, which is at all times that of a 
greyifh brown. They are gregarious, and build their nefls in 
large focieties. Another remarkable bird we obferved in the 
reeds. This was the long-tailed finch, defcribed in the SyJIema 
Natura^ as the loxia Caffra^ on the authority of Thunberg ; 
and in the fame book, with more propriety, as the emberiza 
Jongicauda, The changes that this bird undergoes are ftill 
more extraordinary than thofe of the granadier. The black 
112 feathers 
