Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
195 
being from Boror just beyond our limits. Other species of the genus occur 
in the north beyond our limits, and the genotype in southern Asia. Their 
habitat is open country with trees scattered about, or even open forest. 
Scleroptila Bonaparte, genotype 5 . levaillanti Val., differs from all the 
preceding in having the nostrils situate closer to the head and with short 
feathers on the operculum, which is rounder in shape ; in appearance, habits 
and call-notes, members of this genus are also quite readily differentiated 
from other genera. They occur in quite open country in fairly large coveys, 
which, when flushed, scatter about and later call to each other, uttering 
a note something like “ Perrie-pirrie ” repeated three or four times. Four 
species occur within our limits, two sometimes occurring in the same 
localities when their common habitats overlap, namely 5 . levaillanti from 
the southern districts of the Cape Province northwards on the east to 
Zoutpansberg and Transvaal highveld, overlapping S. gariepensis of the 
west in the southern Transvaal, 5 . shelleyi on the east from Natal north- 
wards, and 5 . afer, which is distributed from the extreme south northwards 
on the east along the Drakensberg to the south-eastern part of Transvaal. 
The fourth species, S. jugularis pallidior (Neumann, Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 
XXI. 44, 1908), occurs in our north-western region. 
It will thus be seen that I do not include the genus Francolinus, in 
which all our species have been placed (except Pternistis), as it differs in 
some respects from all of them, coming nearest perhaps to Peliperdix. 
Numididae 
Numida papillosa transvaalensis Neumann {Orn. Monatsb. 1899, p. 26) 
described from Rustenburg district, and N. papillosa damarensis Rbts 
{Ann. Transvaal Mus. vi. 2, 1917) from Windhuck, should be added to our 
list. The typical N. papillosa Reichenow was described from the neigh- 
bourhood of Lake Ngami. 
Guttera lividicollis Ghigi {Mem. Ac. Sci. Instit. Bologna, vi. PL ii, 1905) 
described from the upper Zambesi and G. edouardi symonsi Rbts {l.c. p. 3, 
1917) from Karkloof, Natal, should be added to our list. Since describing 
the last I have learned from the collector that there is no red on the bare 
skin of the throat and the form thus becomes a subspecies of G. lividicollis. 
It is extremely doubtful whether the type of G. edouardi was collected at 
Durban by Verreaux, as all records of specimens from Natal go to show that 
they have no red on the throat, and moreover many of Verreaux’s records 
have subsequently proved to be wrong. Most likely it came from somewhere 
up the eastern coast towards Zanzibar. 
Pteroclidae 
If we are to regard Pteroclurus Bp. as distinct from Pterocles, we must 
also recognise the generic status of other species. Pterocles Temm., geno- 
type P. orientalis L. (cf. Hartert, Nov. Zool. xxiv. 284, 1917), has sixteen 
tail feathers, in which respect Pteroclurus and Pterocles hicinctus are the 
same; but “Pterocles” variegatus (Burchell) has only fourteen tail feathers 
and should therefore be separated without further question, and I therefore 
propose to place it in a new genus, Calopterocles. In Pterocles hicinctus 
Temm. the middle tail feathers are not longer than the rest, in the typical 
Pterocles slightly longer, and in Pteroclurus namaquus very much longer; 
