1811. 
HANDSOME BIRD. — GUARRI BUSHES. 
387 
the same time they so confined the legs, that it was not possible for 
it to make any use of them in extricating itself Sometimes a stake, 
having a very sharp point upwards, is fixed in the bottom, for the 
cruel purpose of empaling the poor animal ; but this is very rarely 
done, and I can recollect but few instances of having ever found 
such a stake. Perhaps it is omitted, in order to avoid those dreadful 
accidents which might otherwise happen to their own people ; as it 
is not easy, even for themselves, as they are running hastily over the 
country, to discover them in time to escape falling in. The Hotten- 
tots when speaking in Dutch, call these pit-falls by the mixed name 
of 'Kt/si-gat, or Tki/si-gat, (Kysi-pit) ; the first part of which is the 
aboriginal appellation. * 
With the precaution of taking my gun with me, I rambled alone 
in the grove ; and although in general, no new objects were here to be 
found, I met with a new species of Lmiius\, an exceedingly handsome 
bird having the under part of the body of the brightest scarlet, and all 
the rest of the finest black, excepting a white stripe down each wing, 
and a few faint white marks on the back. 
Here I saw for the first time, a neat bush of dense foliage like 
Box, called GuarriX by the Hottentots ; and which is one of the very 
few transgariepine shrubs that afford an eatable fruit possessed of any 
good flavor. It bears a round black berry of the size of a pea, with a 
proportionally large stone. In taste, it has a little astringency, but 
is however, perfectly wholesome. Other species resembling myrtles, 
* This word, as I learn from the Hottentots, is the true etymon of the name of a large 
river, now forming the eastern boundary of the new English colony beyond Algoa Bay, 
and which should therefore be written Kysikamma, or Keisikamma. 
f Lanius atro-coccineus, B. Totus niger, exceptis corporis partibus inferioribus, a 
gula usque ad crissam, pulchre coccineis ; et linea alam percurrente alba. 
It very much resembles the Lanius barbarus of Gmel. Sys. Nat. (the Gonolek of BufFon, 
and of Le Vaillant, Ois. d'Afr. pi. 69.) but from this it is easily distinguished by a 
head entirely black, and a white stripe down each wing. 
■\. Euclea ovata, Cat. Geog. 1706. Folia acute ovata rigidia subtus pubescentia, 
niargine undulata sub-crenulata. Flores in racemulis nutantibus 3 — 5-floris, Bacca; 
globosae prinium pubescentes, demum glabrae. 
Guarri is the Hottentot name of various species o( Eticlea, producing eatable berries. 
3 D 2 
