232 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
flight is tolerably strong ; their food consists of minute insects, eggs of 
moths, etc. During the summer months they may frequently be seen 
perched on the top of a low tree or bush, when they utter a monotonous 
weeping note for a length of time.” The Brothers Woodward, writing of 
this species, state that its call is heard principally during the early summer 
months, that it frequents long grass and weeds, and that the nest is a 
loose domed structure of coarse grass and cobweb, lined with vegetable 
down and fixed in the stalks of a tall weed ; they describe the eggs as two 
in number, light blue and speckled with red-brown. In the Transvaal 
Museum collection there are several clutches of eggs of this species collected 
by R. H. Ivy at Grahamstown ; all these eggs are white, with clear pink 
and red-brown spots or speckles varving in quantity ; they measure 
14 *9-15 -5 X 11 -7-12 T mm. In the same collection there is also a nest, 
taken with the female parent by H. II. Swinny, Port St, Johns District, 
on 12th December, 1907 ; this nest is composed of dry blades of grass 
on the outside, and the rest of silky fibres of weed-flowers, loosely matted 
together into an oval shape, with the entrance at one side near the top ; 
the eggs are four in number, like those from Grahamstown in colour, and 
measure 14 *5-15 X 11 *5-11 *7 mm. 
Table of measurements of specimens in the Transvaal Museum collec- 
tion : — 
No. 
Locality. 
Date. 
Sex. 
Wing. Tail. 
Tars. 
Culm. 
832 
Knvsna 
9/11/98 
$ 
51 41 
17 *5 
11 
831 
JJ 
10 /2 /99 
S (juv.) 
49 43 
17 *5 
11 
1970 
Grahamstown 
2 
? (<??) 
52 46 
18 *5 
2 
4249 
-/i/06 
s (i uv -) 
46 40 
17 *5 
2 
4250 
?? 
2 
$ 
51 43 
17 
11 
2401 
Pondoland 
11/5/07 
$ 
49 45 
18 
10 
4252 
5,5 
16 /II /07 
$ 
49 40 
18 
10*5 
4253 
26/6/08 
$ 
50*5 46 
17 *5 
11 
4258 
5 5 
24 /4 /08 
$ 
49 44 
17 *5 
11 
3269 
5 5 • • 0 • • * ■ • 
10/5/07 
? (<*) 
51*5 45 
17 *5 
11 
3270 
55 
10/5/07 
c? 
50*5 44 
18 
11 
9038 
5 5 
25/5/11 
's 
50 45 
17 *5 
11 
9038 
5 5 
13/6/11 
* (<?) 
51 46 
16*5 
11 
9523 
55 
13/6/11 
'(? 
50*5 46 
18 
11 
4254 
55 
12/3/08 
■5 (juv.) 
48 44 
17 
10 
9200 
55 
12/12/07 
$ (and 
eggs) 
45*5 40 
17 
11 
8963 
Matatiele 
20/8 111 
<J 
54 48 
19 
12 
8964 
,, 
18/8/11 
s 
53 49 
18 
12 
8965 
55 
16/7/11 
? 
49*3 46 
17*5 
11 
Note. — The specimens from Pondoland may prove to represent a 
so Hartlaub’s name of Camaroptera natalevsis may have to be revived. 
small race, and if 
2. Cisticola ruficapilla (A. Smith).* 
Plates — Smith’s 111. Zool. of S. Afr., PL 73, fig. 1 ; Ann. Transv. 
Mus., Jan., 1909. 
* Zool. of S. Africa, Plate 73 (1842). 
