form its favourite resort; it runs with great rapidity along the
ground, and steals through tangled foliage with equal celerity.”
Yictorin records this species from the Karroo in January, and
from the Knysna in May and November. Mr. Andersson also procured
it at the latter place in January and February, and we have
seen a specimen of his shooting, from Kugel Fountain, Little
Namaqua Land, and bearing date August 6th, 1862. We have
received it also from Colesberg and Swellendam, and it extends to
Port Elizabeth, where Mr. Rickard procured it in May, 1868.
Adult male.—Above dull earthy brown, the wings a little darker
than the back, with indistinct rufous-brown margins to the quills,
the primaries narrowly edged with whity brown ; tail-feathers light
brown with pale whitish tips and a subterminal bar of black; lores
yellowish white, as also a distinet eyebrow; cheeks and sides of face
pale yellowish with distinct triangular spots of black, obscuring the
yellow of the ear-coverts which are also brown on their hinder
margin; under surface of body pale yellowish, with distinct longitudinal
spots of black, larger on the breast and smaller on the
throat and on the sides of the body, which are washed with pale
tawny brown; the abdomen unstreaked, pale yellow; thighs dull
tawny, the under tail coverts also pale tawny brown with indistinct
darker centres; wings light tawny buff, the lower series ashy brown
at tips like the lower surface of the quills whieh are edged with pale
rufous along the inner web; bill flesh-colour, shading into dark
brown on the upper mandible and the tips of the lower one; legs
flesh-colour; iris brownish yellow. Total length, 5 inches; culmen,
0‘55; wing, 2-0; tail, 2'75; tarsus, 0‘85.
Fig. Smith, 111. Zool. S. Afr. Aves, pi. 76, fig. 1.
245. D rymoeca hypo xa n th a , Sharpe.
Saffron-breasted Grass-Warbler.
This new species, as we regard it, is the eastern representative of
P. maculosa, and differs from it in the deep yellow colour of the
throat and abdomen, and in the very narrow blackish streaks on the
breast. We have received several specimens from Mr. T. 0. Atmore
killed in the neighbourhood of Eland’s Post in the Eastern Province,
and Captain Shelley has also examples from the neighbourhood of
Pinetown in Natal. We believe that it is this species of which Mr.
Ayres speaks in his early papers on the ornithology of Natal, under
the name of D. substriata. He writes as follows:—
ftI found a family of thiB Drymoica in July (midwinter here)
about forty miles inland, amongst some scrubby bush; also a
solitary individual some time after, in some high sedgy grass.
These birds seem much to resemble Drymoica subflma in habits and
appearance. Their food consists of small insects.” Mr. Barratt
procured a specimen at Macamac, and Mr. Gurney has recently
presented to the British Museum two specimens obtained in the
same district by Mr. Ayres on the 3rd December, 1874.
Adult male.—Above brown, nearly uniform everywhere, the head
indistinctly mottled with darker brown centres, the lower back and
rump slightly washed with olive ; wings brown, duller than the
back, with paler edgings to the feathers, the primaries narrowly
margined with whity brown; tail light brown, waved across with
dusky under certain lights, the feathers narrowly tipped with white,
with a faint indication of a subterminal blackish bar ; lores and a
very distinct eyebrow, as well as a circlet of feathers round the eyes,
pale yellow ; a few plumes between the eye and the base of bill
dusky brown, as also the upper margin of the ear-coverts ; rest of
the sidès of the face and throat, lemon yellow, entirely unspotted ;■
rest of under surface of body yellow, unspotted on the abdomen, but
distinctly streaked with black down the chest and on the sides of the
body ; flanks washed with yellowish brown ; thighs and under tail-
coverts tawny buff ; under wing-coverts also tawny buff, the edge of
the wing white ; quills brown below, the inner web edged with tawny
rufous ; bill black ; legs flesh-colour ; iris light brown. Total
length, 5’3 inches ; culmen, 0-55 ; wing, 2T ; tail, 2'7 ; tarsus, 0'9.
Adult female.—Similar to the male, but smaller. Total length,
4*7 inches; culmen, 05 ; wing, P95; tail, 2'2 ; tarsus, 0-85.
With twelve tail feathers (Gisticola).
246. C ist ico la n a t a l en s is . Natal Fantail Warbler.
Drymoica natalensis, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 87 (1867).
Entirely confined to Natal and the surrounding districts, but as yet
not known within thé limits of the Cape Colony, nor to the eastward
in the Transvaal. Its large size, stout bill and tawny colouring seem
to be its most distinguishing characteristics. *
Sir Andrew Smith writes as follows :—“ Inhabits the neighbourhood
of Port Natal, and the specimen described was shot upon
reeds, among which it was flitting to and fro in search of insects,
which, from the ingesta found in its stomach, appeared to have been