DRYMOICA TEXTRIX. 
short and slightly graduated. Tarsi robust, anteriorly scutellated, posteriorly 
entire ; toes slender and rather long, the outer and middle ones united to- 
wards base ; claws long, slender, and slightly curved. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from the point of the bill to 
the tip of the tail 4 0 
of the bill to the angle of the 
mouth 0 6 
of the wings when folded 1 10J 
of the tail 1 1 
Inches. Lines. 
Length of the tarsus 0 llg 
inner toe 0 3j 
middle toe 0 5 
outer toe 0 3^ 
hinder toe 0 3 
Female . — Colours and proportions nearly the same as those of the male. 
Although this bird, the “ Pine Pine” of Levaillant,* is well represented in the splendid 
work of that traveller, yet I have thought it desirable to reproduce it here, to enable persons 
not possessed of the work referred to, and which is not generally available to naturalists in 
England, to compare it with the other South African species. It has been made the type of a 
form by Mr. Swainson ;■(- but as I cannot regard it otherwise than as a Drymoica, with modi- 
fications, suiting it for seeking its food upon the ground, I have not entitled it PLemipteryx. 
The Pine Pine occurs in various situations in the Cape Colony, but is never found, as far as 
I know, to the north of the Orange River. It occurs in districts abounding with long grass, 
and seeks its food, which consists of insects, upon the ground in places so circumstanced. It 
rarely perches, and when it does, it is in localities where small shrubs exist. Where neither 
shrubs nor grass sufficiently strong to support it exist, it is only to be shot while on the 
wing ; and when it has been once or twice put to flight, it afterwards conceals itself, and cannot 
again be flushed even by the greatest exertion. 
* Oiseaux d’Afrique, plate 131. 
+ Lardner’s Cyclopredia. (Natural History. Birds, vol. ii. page 242.) 
