Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/190

162 few leaves. In the work referred to it is stated to be found "generally in the neighbourhood of water," but this is not invariable, for the nest I found was on a rocky mound in a most arid spot. It contained two eggs, so I presume December is the time of nidification. The internal cavity of my nest is 60 by 50 millim. expanse, and 25 millim. deep. The rarest bird I procured was the Red-headed Weaver Bird, Malimbus rubriceps, but this I obtained from W. Ayres, and but one other specimen had ever passed through his hands during a life-time's collecting in the South African bush. I also brought away with me the skin of Scops capensis, the Cape Scops Owl, and Centropus senegalensis, the Lark-heeled Cuckoo. A flying visit of a few days, after all, gives little opportunity of grasping the real peculiarities of a local fauna, and the short time spent at Rustenburg would have been almost barren in result but for the guidance of the local naturalist. We worked hard during our stay, finishing real work on Christmas Eve, when I smoked the evening pipe with the well-known Anglican Prebendary who has settled in the home of the Dopper Boers, with a small church, a small flock, and no intention of leaving. We had our last insect hunt on Christmas morning, and then after a mid-day banquet—of Rustenburg limitations—shook the hand of our genial guide and companion, and started on the homeward track. We had some good shooting in the afternoon among Crowned Lapwings, Chettusia coronata, and Yellow-throated Sand-grouse, Pterocles guttularis, as we drove along, but the drought dominated, and little animal life was to be seen. On the banks of a sluit we disturbed a Monitor, Varanus niloticus, but this is neither worth shooting nor keeping alive, or rather endeavouring to do so. I once had one in my possession for three months, and during the whole of that time it abstained from food, though I supplied it liberally with small lizards, frogs, eggs, meat, orthoptera, and on one occasion tried to tempt its appetite by the offer of a small harmless water-snake. I kept it in a large tank of water with an artificial rockery in the centre, on which it could rest above the surface, which it usually did; but it refused all food and ultimately died of exhaustion, when, by request, I packed its body off to the Grahamstown Museum.

It was interesting to watch the behaviour of the frogs, most