V

FOR THE PEOPLE

FOR EDVCATION

FOR SCIENCE

LIBRARY

OF

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM

OF

NATURAL HISTORY

OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME A UTHOR

The Natural History of South Africa

Mammals. 4 Volumes

The Monkeyfolk of South Africa
The House Fly: A Slayer of Men

Publishers :

Messrs LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

39 Paternoster Row, London

The Snakes of South Africa:

Their Venom and the Treatment of Snake Bite

Snake Bite and its Scientific Treatment

Publisher :
Mr T. MASKEW MILLER,

Adderley Street, Cape Town

The above-mentioned Works are all
Profusely Illustrated

Extract from Letter by R. Roycroft, M.B., CM.,

District Surgeon, Grey town, Natal :

" I take this opportunity to express to you my thanks for the
many hours of genuine pleasure you have given me by the
reading of your so charmingly worded works. It is very
seldom that a scientist combines the two factors : (1) Know-
ledge 5 and (2) the skill of being able to present that
knowledge in language 'understandable of the people.'"

THE NATURAL HISTORY
OF SOUTH AFRICA

Vol. I.

Made in Great Britain

TO THE

Loving Companion and Helpmate in my Labours

MY WIFE

THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

THE AUTHOR

(1922)

PREFACE

In the presenting of these volumes on the birds of
South Africa, it has been my endeavour to create in
the minds of my readers a love and a keen appreciation
of our beautiful and useful allies.

From my earliest youth I have made an intimate
study of the creatures of mountain, veld, forest, and
stream in their native haunts. The results of some
of these studies have already been published in book
form in the " Natural History of South Africa " and
" Snakes of South Africa." My intention was to
have published these volumes at an earlier date, but,
owing to unforeseen circumstances, their publication
has been held over.

The results of several years of research and study
of the birds of South Africa were recorded in a number
of diaries. These records were lent to a naturalist
friend with permission to take notes from them. Alas !
he lost them all. It was a sad loss to me, resulting in
further years of investigation.

The first volume deals chiefly with the economic
side of bird life. There is much spade work and
great battles yet to be fought by the human race
against the adverse forces of Nature which retard the

vii

PREFACE

spread of the human race over earth's fair surface.
Our most formidable and ruthless opponents are the
insects. It is now almost an even fight for supremacy,
and unless we combine and utilise our forces more
effectively and efficiently, we shall find it very difficult
to secure a livelihood. A few more wars, with the
inevitable disorganising of the forces employed against
the insect hosts, will result in these enemies getting a
strangle hold upon us. Our race may recover, but
many millions will perish of starvation and insect-borne
diseases. The fecundity of the insect is tremendous,
and a little weakening in our offensive will bring
disaster, sure and certain, upon our race. The
insects are fighting for possession of the earth. It
is now a case of Insect versus Man. All other forms
of life have been subdued, but the insect still holds
its ground, and ever and anon gains considerable
advantages over us. The present production of food
is not sufficient for the needs of our race. Millions
live in a condition of semi-starvation ; hosts actually
die of hunger. With the increase of the world's
population, we must have a corresponding increase in
food production. By subduing the insects and keeping
them in subjection we can provide food in plenty for
every human being. At present a large percentage
of the world's food supply is devoured by hungry
insects.

In our struggle for food and life we have two
great aids. Birds stand in the front rank as our
allies, and cannibal insects come second in usefulness.
We cannot stem the assaults of our enemies with

viii

PREFACE

poison sprays and other artificial appliances, supple-
mented by useful carnivorous and parasitic insects.

The birds alone can turn the scale in our favour.

The principal object of this book is to endeavour to
show the extent of the depredations of insects, and
the usefulness, nay, the necessity of birds in our fight
for supremacy against the greatest enemy of the human
race — the insects and allied forms of life.

In the compilation of these books I was helped by
valuable field observations on the nesting habits and
diet of birds by my son Vivian ; also by my son
Desmond with many pen and ink sketches.

THE AUTHOR.

Port Elizabeth, 1923.

IX

NOTE

The author and publishers both wish to gratefully
acknowledge their obligations to Messrs Bernard
Quaritch Ltd. for permission to reproduce the
coloured plates in Layard and Sharpe's " Birds of
South Africa." Plate L, Crested Eagle (Hieraactus
ayresi), is reproduced from The Ibis by kind permission
of the Committee of the British Ornithologists' Union.
To Edward Howe Forbush, the Ornithologist of the
Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture and the
Editor of Bird Notes and News, for literature. Also
for notes and extracts taken from the book " Birds of
South Africa " by Layard and Sharpe, and " The
Fauna of South Africa " (Birds) by Stark and Sclater.

XI

ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I.

COLOURED PLATES

I. Crested Eagle {Hieraaetus ayresi)
From The Ibis. April 191 9.

Frontispiece

II. (1) White-flanked Flycatcher \

{Pachyprora molitor) \ to face page 10
(2) Pririt Flycatcher {Packyprora pririt) )

III. Bakbakiri Shrike (Lam'arius gutturalis) -

IV. Orange-breasted Rock-Jumper

( Chcrtops aurantiacus)

V. (1) GREEN COUCAL (Ceuthmochares anstralis) \

(2) West African Coucal

(Ceut/unochares (pre us) J

76
154

222

BLACK AND WHITE PLATES

The Author (1922)

Nomenclature of the Bird's Feathers

Beaks and their Uses

VI

facing p. 1

4

12
18
24

Xlll

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

(i) The Crombec Warbler's Nest ; (2) Bakbakiri Shrike, Nest,
and Eggs ; (3) The Little White-Eye's Nest ; (4) The
Large Yellow Seed-Eater's Nest ; (5) The Crowned
Lapwing and Eggs ; (6) The Thick-Knee's Nest - 35

([) Nest of Silent Bush Robin, or Fiskal Flycatcher ; (2) Nest
of the Cape or Olivaceous Thrush ; (3) Nest of Cape
Robin Chat; (4) Nest of Bar -Throated Warbler;
(5) Cape Bulbul, with Egg of Cuckoo ; (6) Nest of
Cape Canary - - 39

(t) Secretary Bird ; (2) White Stork - - 43

Nests of (1) Pink-Billed Weaver ; (2) Black and Yellow Bishop
Bird ; (3) Scaly- Feathered Weaver ; (4) Black-Headed
Oriole - - 49

Nests and Eggs of (1) The Drongo ; (2) Turtle Dove ;
(3) Tchagra Bush Shrike ; (4) Bakbakiri Shrike ;
(5) Cape Rock Thrush - 55

Black and Grey Cuckoo at the Nest of a Cape Bulbul - - 59

Nest of a Hammerkop, or Mudlark - - 63

(1) Pair of Paradise Flycatchers and Nest; (2) Red-Necked

Bush Pheasant's Eggs ; (3) Nest-Hole of a Woodpecker 69

Nests of (1) Smith's Weaver Bird ; (2) With Unusually Long-
Entrance Tube ; (3) Spotted-Back- Weaver ; (4) Yellow
Weaver ------- 72

Nests of (1) Burchell's Coucal, or Vlei Loerie ; (2) Honey-
sucker ; (3) Cape Longclaw ; (4) Quail ; (5) Stanley
Bustard, or Veld Paauw - - 79

Eggs of a Moth on a Leaf - - 87

Life-History of a Moth - - 93

The Bagworm - - - 98

Bird Shelters, etc. - - - 105

Boomslang, or Tree Snake - - 109
(1) Secretary Bird in the Act of Killing a Snake ; (2) Nest of

a Black Crow on the Top of a Telegraph Pole - - 115

(1) Mountain Partridge ; (2) Red-Necked Pheasant - 119

White Egret 124

xiv

ILLUSTRATIONS

['AGE

(i) A Domestic Fowl Half Skeletonised; (2) Skeleton of an

Abnormal Domestic Duck - -129

Nesting Boxes from Old Tins, etc. 133

Various Types of Bird Nesting- Boxes 137

Tree-Hole and Walden Boxes - 143

Cat-Proof Fence and other Devices for Protecting Birds 148

Various Devices for Protection from Climbing Cats, etc. 153

Nesting Boxes in Position - 1 59

The Black Crow, or South African Rook - 162

(1) The Wattled Starling, or Little Locust Bird ; (2) The Black-
Vented Glossy Starling - - - 168

(1) Burchell's Glossy Starling ; (2) Tied Starling - 173

Glossy Starling - - 178

(1) The Red-Wing Starling, Spreeuw, or Rooivlerk ;

(2) Verreaux's Glossy Starling - - 182

(1) Black-Headed Oriole ; (2) Golden Oriole - 187

(1) Masked Weaver Bird ; (2) Black Widow Finch ; (3) Paradise

Widow Bird ; (4) Pin-Tailed Widow Bird - 193

The Gape of the Night Jar - - - 195

(1) Common Waxbill, or Rooibeckie ; (2) South African Ruddy
Waxbill, or Robin ; (3) The Dainty Scaly-Feathered
Weaver - - - 198

(1) Dufresne's Waxbill, or See-See; (2) Orange-Breasted
Waxbill, or Zebra Waxbill ; (3) Blue-Breasted Waxbill ;
(4) Grenadine, or Violet-Ear Waxbill - - - 204

(1) Taha Bishop Bird ; (2) Black and Yellow Bishop Bird,
or Yellow Kafir Fink ; (3) Black and Yellow Bishop
Bird, Nuptial Plumage ; (4) Paradise Widow Bird 207

(1) SundevalFs Seed-Eater; (2) Streaky-Headed Seed-Eater:

(3) Seed-Eater; (4) Cape Canary - - 213

(1) Capped Wheatear, or Schaap-Wachter ; (2) The Large
Yellow Seed-Eater ; (3) The Golden-Breasted Bunting,
or Streep- Kopje - - - - - - 216

(1) The Cinnamon-Backed Pipit; (2) Orange-Throated Lark,
Longclaw, Cape Lark or Cut-Throat Lark ; (3) Red-
Capped Lark (Inkelde Leeuwerk) - - - 221

XV

ILLUSTRATIONS

(i) Rufous Long-Billed Lark ; (2) Bar-Tailed Lark, or Clapart
Leeuwerk -

Cape Wagtail

(1) Ray's Yellow Wagtail ; (2) African Pied Wagtail -

(1) Cape Long-Tailed Sugar Bird ; (2) The Orange-Breasted
Sun Bird ; (3) Greater Double-Collared Sun Bird

(1) The Black Sun Bird; (2) Immature Male; (3) Mouse-
Coloured Sun Bird .....

(1) The Cock Malachite Sun Bird; (2) The Female;
(3) Scarlet-Chested Sun Bird - •

A Fiscal Shrike, or Butcher Bird

Fiscal Shrike, or Butcher Bird, with Nest and Eggs

(1) The Black-Headed Bush Shrike; (2) Four-Coloured Bush
Shrike ; (3) The Black and Crimson Shrike

(1) The Long-Tailed Shrike; (2) The Bakbakiri Bush Shrike,
or Cock-a-Vick ------

(1) Lesser Puff-Back, or Snowball Shrike ; (2) Greater Puff-
Back Shrike, or Bonte Canaribyter

(1) Grey Cuckoo Shrike, or Blaauw Katakure ; (2) Black
Cuckoo Shrike ; (3) Southern Grey-Headed Bush Shrike

XVI

^15

V^vSj^

1.

Crown.

11

Primaries.

21.

Secondary coverts

2.

Ear coverts.

12.

Tail.

22.

Median coverts.

B.

Hinder crown.

13.

Under tail coverts.

23.'

Lesser coverts.

4.

Nape.

14.

Vent.

24.

Chest.

5.

Hinci neck.

15.

Foot.

25.

Throat.

6.

Mantle.

16.

Tarsus.

26.

Cheek.

7.

Scapulars.

17.

Thigh.

27.

Chin.

8.

Upper back.

18.

Belly.

28.

Genys.

9.

Lower back.

19.

Primary covert.

29.

Culmen.

0.

Secondaries.

20.

Bastard wing.

30.

Lores.

Vol. I.

! To face page

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF
SOUTH AFRICA

BIRDS

"Think of your woods and orchards without birds !
Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams !
As in an idiot's brain, remembered words

Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams !
While bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds

Make up for the lost music when your teams
Drag home the stingy harvest, and no more
The feathered gleaners follow to your door."

Longfellow.

In the economy of Nature birds take a very consider-
able part. Throughout all forms of life, from the
humble creatures which are mere spots of transparent
jelly, upwards all along the line to the highly evolved
sub-human animals, Nature guards against the undue
multiplication of species so that those forms of life
which increase most rapidly have the largest number
of enemies.

Man fondly nurses the erroneous belief that he
is the dominant animal upon earth. True, he has
acquired a considerable measure of power and domi-
nance, and persecutes and slays the lower animal life

VOL. i. i i

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

around him in a most brutal and unreasoning manner.
Knowing no better, he destroys friend and foe alike.

The real lords and masters of the world are the
insects. With his many inventions, man wages a
constant warfare upon the insect army which is seek-
ing to drive him from the face of the earth. The
numerous sub-human allies which the Creator has
provided to aid him in his struggle for life are doing
most of the fighting. Man's puny attacks do about
as much damage to the insect enemy as shooting into
a flight of migratory locusts with a rifle.

Insects breed with astounding rapidity, and when
from any cause their natural enemies are diminished
in numbers, they immediately increase and become a
plague.

Over a million species of insects are already known,
and new kinds are being discovered every day. These
vast, uncountable hordes live upon vegetable and animal
life. If we had the power to exterminate all the
natural enemies of insects, and exercised that power
to the full, then, within a period of five years, the
insects would have swept the entire world bare of
vegetable life — yes, as bare as the Sahara Desert.
Every living creature is dependent either directly or
indirectly on plant life, and the world would, without
it, become a barren, uninhabitable waste. Man is
indeed a provokingly unreasoning animal, for he, as a
general rule, does not avail himself as he should of
the knowledge of his men of science. To bring
about most of the reforms for the protection and general
betterment of the individual and the race, it is usually

2

BIRDS

necessary to employ compulsion in the form of legisla-
tion. Until the education of children takes a more
practical turn, the human race will continue to blunder
on and evolve to higher intellectual and spiritual planes
at an exasperatingly slow pace.

Insects have hosts of enemies other than our
feathered allies ; but if we exterminated the native
birds, the human population of South Africa would,
in a few years, be reduced to a condition of starvation.
The fecundity of many species of insects is staggering
to the imagination of even an astronomer. For in-
stance, one hop aphis, if allowed to breed unchecked,
would develop thirteen generations in a single year, and
at the end of the twelfth generation would have bred
an army of ten sixtillions of aphides.

Forbush has worked it out, and says if this uncount-
able army was marshalled in line ten to the inch, it
would extend as far as the great star Sirius, which is
so far away that if a man could travel at the rate of
light, which is 186,000 miles per second, the journey
from earth would take him eight years.

Kirtland, too, has carefully worked out the rate of
breeding of the gypsy moth, and states that it a pair
of these moths and their progeny were allowed to breed
unchecked for eight years, they would strip the entire
United States of America of vegetation.

A Colorado beetle or potato bug would, if un-
checked, multiply in one season to the number of
60,000,000. It can thus be realised by even the
dullest intellect, that at this rate of multiplication the
Colorado beetle would very quickly exterminate the

3

BEAKS AND THEIR USES.

BEAKS AND THEIR USES.

1. The Black Sunbird (Cinnyris amethystinus) has a beak suited for sipping

nectar from flowers.

2. With his wide-gaped jaws the Swift (Cypselus apiis) captures insects in

the air.

:>. With a sweeping side movement, the Whimbrel {Xu?ne>icius p/iaopus)
sifts the mud of lagoons for aquatic forms of life on which it lives.

4. The European Roller {Coracias garrulus) is provided with a specially

strong weapon for killing grasshoppers and beetles.

5. Meyer's Parrot (Pceocephalus Meyeri) possesses a tool for digging nest

holes in trees, for breaking up hard fruits, and cracking nuts and
berries.

6. The Black-Collared Barbet (Lybius torquatus) uses his beak for nipping

the berries and wild fruits from forest trees.

7. The Kakelaar (Trrisor viridis) uses his long curved beak for searching

out insects in the bark and substance of forest trees.

8. The Hoopoe {Upupa africana) wins his living by prodding the ground for

insects and their larva' which lurk underground.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

potato plant. The migratory locust, for instance, if
allowed to lay its eggs and breed unchecked, would
in a few years make farming an impossibility. Aye !
it would sweep the entire country of vegetation and
convert it into a barren, useless desert.

The tick is another insect scourge ; it is parasitic,
and feeds on the blood of animals. It reduces the
condition of stock animals more or less seriously, and
is an active agent in carrying disease germs from one
animal to another.

The female tick lays from 2,000 to 18,000 eggs,
according to the species.

If all our tick-eating birds were destroyed and
dipping suspended, these terrible pests would kill off
every stock animal in the country. On taking up my
residence in a house at Port Elizabeth, surrounded
by large grounds and gardens, I was amazed to find the
place a paradise of insect life. The flowers and
vegetables which I planted were completely eaten off
before reaching maturity. Prior to my tenancy, the
house was uninhabited for two years, and boys had been
in the habit of roaming at will about the premises with
catapults and air-guns, murdering any and every bird
they could find. Others searched the bushes for
nests, intent on robbing them of their contents. The
place became a sanctuary for birds on my advent, and
within a year the insect army of occupation was
annihilated.

Insects not only breed with astounding and dis-
concerting rapidity, but their powers of eating are,
if anything, still more amazing. A caterpillar will

6

BIRDS

eat three times its own weight of vegetation every day.
This, on first thoughts, does not seem so very astonish-
ing, but if applied, for instance, to a horse, it would
mean the animal would require at least a ton of food
every twenty-four hours to satisfy its hunger and
provide for its growth. A man weighing 150 lbs.,
eating only twice his own weight of food, would need
a daily ration of 300 lbs.

The appetite of the vegetation-eating caterpillar is,
however, dwarfed into com-
parative nothingness by the
colossal eating powers of
some of the carnivorous
larvae. One of them, for
instance, will devour 200
times its original weight in
twenty-four hours.

If a large caterpillar eats
an ounce of vegetation a day,

it can well be imagined the number of tons, of
produce the offspring of a few moths or butterflies
would devour in a season if every egg was allowed to
hatch and the caterpillar permitted to live its allotted
span of life. The actual bulk of vegetation devoured
is not the only mischief wrought by insects. Hosts
of species of insects pass the first or larval stage of their
lives underground, and feed on roots, and consequently
destroy the life of the young plant.

Man with all his weapons of defence could not
withstand the onslaught of the insect hosts a single
year without the aid of the allies which he ignorantly

7

The Caterpillar takes a heavy
toll of the farmers' crops.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

persecutes, and in the front rank of which are the
birds. Yet, strange to say, Man, who claims by reason
of his mental superiority to be the Lord of the earth,
is either directly or indirectly destroying the creatures
which the all-wise Creator has provided to help him
in his struggle for food and life against the most
formidable of his enemies — the insects and their near
relations, which, although not true insects in a scientific
sense, are popularly grouped as such.

" What ! would you rather see the incessant stir
Of insects in the windrows of the hay,
And hear the locust and the grasshopper

Their melancholy hurdy-gurdies play ?
Is this more pleasant to you than the whirr

Of meadow lark and her sweet roundelay,
Or twitter of little field-fares, as you take

Your nooning in the shade of bush and brake ? "

Longfellow.

Man, who claims to be guided by an educated
intellect, deliberately attacks his allies instead of acting
in co-operation with and safeguarding them in every
way in his power. Lack of the right kind of knowledge
is undoubtedly the tap root of the evil. Boys and
girls leave school knowing little or nothing at all about
the Natural History of the country in which they
dwell. A few pick up some knowledge of the ways
and habits of the lower forms of life, but the vast
majority go forth to persecute and slay the creatures
which are striving to make the lot of man a brighter
and happier one. Nay, more ! they are making it

BIRDS

impossible for him to live and enjoy the fruits of his
toil. In his orchard and garden man can, to a limited
extent, keep the insects in check with various insecti-
cides, which are after all unnatural and expensive, and
often dangerous. Even with these aids he is fre-
quently overwhelmed. When his crops, his pasturage,
and his forests are invaded by ravening hordes of
insects, his offensive collapses and his defences are
demolished. He sits in his home, chafes, blames
Providence, the Government, or thinks the visitation
a Divine punishment for his sins. In this latter

The Slug is a garden pest, and birds are its enemies.

surmise he is not far wrong, for it truly is a chastise-
ment for his sins and those of his neighbours in allow-
ing his friends and allies — the native birds — to be perse-
cuted, done to death, or driven to seek less dangerous
hunting grounds.

Insects are attacked by parasites, diseases, and fungi,
and some kinds prey upon others ; but all these
natural checks, with the fight put up by man, are
altogether and entirely inadequate to prevent insects
from increasing to uncountable hosts and sweeping
all vegetable life from the face of the earth, except
by the aid of his allies the birds.

Insects are preyed upon by some species of small
mammals; by lizards, toads, and other reptiles and

9

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

batrachians ; but their arch-enemy — the foe which keeps
them in check — is our feathered ally, the bird. Destroy
the birds, and all the other foes of insects could not
prevent them from carrying all before them by sheer
force of numbers.

Why are birds indispensable allies in our desperate
efforts to stem the advance of the insect Hun ?
Because the food of the vast majority consists of
insects. The seed-eating species, with but few excep-
tions, feed their young solely on an insect diet.

Is it then a matter for wonder that outraged Nature
scourges us so severely ? We deserve it, surely.
There are sins of omission and commission; both are
equally far-reaching in their results.

We are hypnotised by the belief that it is necessary
to have our children's minds filled with what might be
termed " the ballast of the ages." There is often no
time left in the child's life, or no desire on the part
of the parents, to have it taught those things which
are necessary to enable it to develop into a useful
and progressive citizen of the State, and to pilot its
way through life with the minimum of mishaps and
disasters. To study Nature is to study the works of
God. It is eminently practical in every sense of the
word, and is also a powerful factor in the awakening
of the moral and spiritual nature of man.

Why have so many of the human race degenerated
into mere money-making machines, with intervals of
leisure for the gratification of their animal passions
and desires ? Chiefly because their minds have
never been awakened to a realisation of the fairy-

10

Plate II. — (1) White-flanked Flycatcher {Pachyprora monitor).
(2) Pririt Flycatcher {Pachyprora print) .
The mission of the Flycatcher is to capture insects in the air

BIRDS

land around them opened up by a study of Natural
History.

What is sport to man is often death or persecution
to some creature which, more likely than not, is a
valuable ally, but he knows it not. Since the inven-
tion of the gun, man has been engaged upon the
deliberate and wanton upsetting of the balance of
Nature. He ventures where angels fear to tread, not
because of his bravery, but by reason of his want of
knowledge. Knowing no better, he allows his children
to wantonly maim and kill the wild birds, and rob
their nests. He hands down to them erroneous,
mischievous, and harmful beliefs in regard to the
sub-human inhabitants of veld, mountain, forest, and
stream, which results in the persecution of the creatures
which are helping him in his battle for life.

For instance, it is popularly believed the harmless
little geko lizard is venomous. The result is, this
highly useful little insect-eater is killed at sight. So
much for the wisdom of man. Conversing with a
lady school teacher from an up-country dorp, I
expressed regret at the profound ignorance of our
children on the ways and habits of the wild creatures
of this country. She admitted the fact, but was eager
to inform me she encouraged the boys in the school
to learn Natural History. One boy, she declared,
had made a wonderful collection of birds' skulls.
' How did he procure the skulls ? " I queried. ' He
went out excursions and killed the birds with a shot-
gun," she replied. " Other boys," she declared with
pride, " collected birds' eggs, and had really lovely

1 1

BEAKS AND THEIR USES.

1. The Natal Knorhaan {Otis barrowii) digs among the roots of grasses and

shrubs on the veld for insects and their larvae.

2. The Flamingo {Pkcenicopterus roseus) has a bill wonderfully adapted for

digging and sifting the slime and mud of Lagoons for Crustacea and
mollusca.

3. The Cape Shoveller Duck {Spatula capensis) shovels and sifts the mud

and aquatic vegetation for snails, which are the hosts of the liver
fluke in sheep and Bilharzia in man.

4. The Ethiopian Snipe {Gallinago nigripennis) bores into the soft mud of

marshes for worms and aquatic insects.

5. The Curlew {Numenius arquatus) probes in the mud for its food, which

consists of the various small creatures which live therein.

13

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

collections." " I suppose they took the entire clutch
of eggs every time ? " I asked. " Yes ! oh, yes !
They were so eager, you know, and so jealous lest their
rivals should get more eggs than they."

In South Africa there are about 920 species and
subspecies of birds. Of this great host not more than
twenty species can be said to be harmful to man
without sufficient redeeming qualities, from an economic
point of view, to justify their preservation. There are
some which, when judged from a
broad standpoint, are beneficial to
man as a whole, but which are a
pest to individuals such as fruit
growers, stock farmers, and grain-
growing farmers.

The colies or muis vogels and
the bulbuls, for instance, are foes
to the fruit farmers ; the larger
birds of prey can expect no mercy
from stock and poultry farmers ; and the " vinks "
are a pest to the grain grower.

However, each family of birds will be subsequently
dealt with from an economic point of view, so that
we may be fully acquainted with the various services
rendered us by them, and the amount of payment
some of them take from us for services rendered.
It will then rest with us to judge whether any of them
are taking too heavy a wage in fruit, corn, bees, poultry,
or young stock for the work they perform.

One thing is beyond dispute and must be conceded
by every reasoning individual, viz., that to kill or other-

14

('(invert all your old tin
cans into bird-nest-
ing boxes.

BIRDS

wise persecute the birds which are helping us all the
time in our fight against the voracious hordes of
insects, is a deliberate crime to posterity and a grave
moral wrong.

Is a man morally justified in persecuting, maiming,
or killing useful birds because no man-made law is
violated ? If we saw a big, strong man persecuting
or killing a helpless child we should be aflame with
anger or righteous indignation. On the contrary,
when we see a man deliberately shoot a helpless little
bird friend, we pass by and heed not. The life of a
useful insectivorous bird is, or should be, as sacred
as the life of a child.

It is deplorable, but nevertheless true, that a large
percentage of people are kept in the path of righteous-
ness solely by fear of consequences; hence the necessity
for good and sound legislation and machinery for the
enforcement of the laws, until such time as the race,
as a whole, have advanced to a higher moral and
spiritual plane. Before interfering with the marvellous
and beautiful scheme of Nature, it behoves man to
make careful study and not allow himself to be guided
and dominated by his passions, inclinations, and pre-
judices. After carefully weighing the evidence, should
it be found that any bird, animal, or reptile is, by its
actions, hampering the advancement of the human
race, then, and not till then, are we morally justified
in removing it from the world of the living. When
any creature is destroyed which acts as a check on
another, the inevitable result is a multiplication of the
latter. The destruction of a pair of breeding starlings,

l5

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

for instance, which involves the death of four to six
nestling birds, means the increase of a minimum of
30,000 caterpillars and grubs within six weeks. These
caterpillars soon reach the adult condition, change into
chrysalides, and emerge as moths, butterflies, and
beetles. Each of the females lays thousands of eggs,
which bring forth a vast and destructive army of
larvae, and from the 30,000 caterpillars and grubs
there will arise within a few short months an un-
countable host. All because of the thoughtless or
wanton destruction of a pair of breeding insectivorous
birds.

Many years ago the English press gave colour
to the erroneous and stupid belief that owls were
birds of evil omen, and that they were destroyers of
chickens and useful birds. Some of the farmers,
believing these false statements, mercilessly persecuted
the owls, and the survivors retreated to the wilds.
The following season loud and bitter were the com-
plaints about the damage done to the crops and young
poultry by rats and mice. The second season proved
still worse, and many a farmer was ruined.

There has been much controversy as to whether
the English sparrow (Passer domestkus) does more harm
than good. The chief indictment is that it eats the
buds of fruit trees, with a consequent serious diminution
of the subsequent crop. There is no doubt at all when
this species of bird increases abnormally in numbers
it does become a pest, as is the case with some of the
South African seed-eating birds, whose ranks have to
be thinned when their attacks assume formidable

16

BIRDS

proportions. The thinning process, however, should
only be embarked upon when it is absolutely certain
the birds are doing more harm than good, for it must
be remembered abnormal eruptions of insects cause
the birds to concentrate. The chief concern of birds
during the spring and early summer is to find the
most favourable localities for rearing their families.
The young are fed on an insect diet and, unless insects
are abundant, the young birds, or a large proportion
of them, will perish.

Some years ago the farmers in Hungary, incensed
by the damage done by sparrows to budding fruit
trees, and actuated largely by superstition, prejudice,
and ignorance, made war on this species of bird and
nearly exterminated it. Within the short period of
five years the land was in the grip of the insect Huns.
The farmers became panic-stricken, for utter ruination
stared them in the face. Fortunately knowledge, and
with it repentance in this instance, did not come too
late. The sparrow came into his own again, and the
country was saved.

James Buckland, whose life's work has been
devoted to spreading knowledge in regard to the
economic value of birds, relates several instances of
the serious consequences attendant on the indis-
criminate destruction of wild birds, which are briefly
as follows: —

In the island of Bourbon the people, impelled by

erroneous beliefs and superstition, set a price on the

martin's head. The birds were nearly annihilated,

and, as a consequence, grasshoppers overspread the

vol. i. 17 2

BEAKS AND THEIR USES.

Nature provides the Hammerkop {Scopus umbrella) with an efficient
tool for snapping up frogs and other aquatic creatures.

The Crowned Hornbill {Lophoceros melanoleucus) uses the only tool
Nature gives him to pick fruit and berries, and to plaster up the
entrance hole of his nest.

The Jackal Buzzard {Buteo jackal) slays and rends rats, snakes, birds, and
small mammals with his powerful curved beak.

With its hard pick-like bill the Black Crow (Corvus capensis) digs up the
soil for root-eating grubs.

19

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

island and the people were frantic with fear lest they
should perish. It was indeed fortunate for those
foolish people the martin was not quite beyond recall.
Every encouragement was given these birds, and
swift fell the punishment on anyone who persecuted
them. The martins, finding an abundant food supply,
increased rapidly in numbers, and the devastating
hordes of grasshoppers were destroyed.

In the year i 8 6 1 the harvests of France were very
poor, and the Minister for Agriculture appointed a
Commission to investigate the cause of this alarming
diminution in the crops throughout the country.
The Commission attributed the unusually poor return
to the ravages of insects. It seems the birds which
had been keeping the insects in check had been shot,
snared, and trapped in such numbers that the survivors
were unable to maintain the balance of Nature, and the
insects multiplied and overspread the land to scourge
man for his ignorance and folly.

This Commission reported that they could suggest
no other remedy against the ravages of insects than
prompt and energetic legislation to prevent the
destruction of birds.

For some years prior to 1877 the farmers of
Nebraska were in the habit of poisoning the black-
birds during the spring and autumn around the
cornfields, because they believed this bird was damag-
ing the crops, particularly the wheat. Large numbers
of prairie chicken, quail, plover, and various other
species of eminently useful birds were destroyed at
the same time by eating the poisoned grain. Again

20

BIRDS

outraged Nature arose and smote those unreasoning
farmers in the form of countless hosts of locusts which
swept the land bare of crops and pasturage. " As ye
sow, so shall ye reap."

In 1895, in the region of Ekaterinburg, in Russian
Siberia, two species of cut-worms and about ten species
of locusts devastated the countryside, and the farmers
were in despair, for there was famine throughout the
land. The local Society of Natural Sciences carefully
investigated the cause, and declared it to be due to the
almost complete destruction of the native birds, which
had been killed and their plumage sent abroad to
gratify women's vanity.

The tick is a living, ever-present nightmare to the
farmer. Knowing its disease-carrying propensities,
he never can tell when it may infect his flocks and
herds with a disease that will destroy, perchance, the
majority of them. The tick is the most formidable
enemy with which the stock farmer has to contend.

With but few exceptions the ground birds feed
more or less on ticks. Some species of birds, such as
the tick birds {Buphagd), take them direct from the
cattle, but the majority feed on them upon the herbage
and ground. When a female tick has gorged herself
with blood, she drops from her host and crawls away
to seek a suitable place in which to deposit her eggs.
These blood-gorged ticks are eagerly sought after by
birds, which frequent the grazing grounds of cattle to
seek for them.

Every female tick so destroyed means the destruc-
tion of thousands of eggs. For instance a quail,

21

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

partridge, guinea-fowl, lark, rail, starling, or any one
of the many tick-devouring birds, in a single season is
capable of killing vast swarms of ticks directly and
indirectly.

I have found as many as fifty gorged female ticks
in the crop of a single cattle egret {Bubulcus ibis).
Taking the minimum number of eggs laid by one of
these ticks at 2,000, we have the tremendous total of
100,000. In the crop of a quail, eight of these
mature female ticks were found. This, multiplied by
2,000, makes a total of 16,000 ticks accounted for by
one bird in a day ; or, during the course of the spring
and summer, the colossal number of 3,000,000 ticks
would have been accounted for by one quail.

Twelve crowned lapwings (Stephanibyx coronatus)
or kiewitjes, as they are popularly termed, were shot
during December on a cattle-frequented veld. Nine
of these contained an average of five blue female ticks
distended with blood or eggs. Again, taking the
minimum number of eggs laid by each tick at 2,000,
we have a total of 10,000 ticks accounted for by
each bird in one day. In three months these birds,
eating female ticks at the rate of five per day, would
account for 1,000,000. If these had survived, and
taking half their number to be females, the following
season they would have totalled something like
6,000,000,000.

Yet we find otherwise reasonable, intelligent,
humane, and unselfish men deliberately slaying these
tick-destroying birds for sport, and for the pot, or to
obtain a few paltry pence for their plumage. We also

22

BIRDS

find otherwise kind, loving, gentle, and affectionate
women deliberately encouraging the cold - blooded
murder of these valuable allies of our race by adorning
their headgear with their plumage.

Any woman wearing this badge of cruelty should
be regarded as a pariah, and shunned by all humane
people.

The appalling destruction of insect-eating birds in
Jamaica, chiefly to supply the demands of the
millinery trade, resulted in such a plague of grass
ticks, flies, and mosquitoes, that all breeds of cattle,
with the exception of Indian cattle, were exter-
minated, and the death-rate amongst other domestic
animals and the human population was considerably
raised.

In French West Africa the unrestricted shooting
and trapping of the guinea-fowl resulted in epidemics
of germ diseases amongst the native tribes, and the
destruction of crops by beetles, cut-worms, grubs, and
locusts.

The wholesale destruction of native birds is
followed by disaster to man as surely as day follows
night. Man idly, wilfully, or ignorantly brings about
the cause, and .he suffers the effect to the full. To-day
he has men of science who are capable of guiding and
teaching him how to avoid most of the set-backs he
gets in his journey through life, but he heeds them not.
When they cry aloud in protest at his deeds of vandal-
ism, he turns a deaf ear ; or when they essay to spread
the seed of knowledge in writings, or by means of
lectures, those whom they seek to benefit actually put

23

BEAKS AND THEIR USES.

24

BEAKS AND THEIR USES.

1. The European Bee-Eater (A/crops apiaster) has an instrument perfectly

adapted for catching bees on the wing and crushing them to death
without running any risks.

2. The Noisy Frankolin or Bush Pheasant {Frankolinus capensis) grubs in

the loose loam of the bushlands for insects which pass the larval
phase of their lives there.

3. The Half-Collared Kingfisher {Alccdo semitorquatus) gets his living by

diving for fishes.

4. The Cardinal Woodpecker {Dendropicus cardinalis) pecks out the decayed

wood of trees in search of the larva^ of wood-boring beetles, and to
make nest holes in which his family are reared.

5. The Greater Puff Back Shrike {Dryoscopus ferrugineus) crushes beetles

with his short strong beak.

6. The Paradise Flycatcher {Terpsiphone perspicillatd) snaps up insects on

the wing and crushes them to death.

7. The Wattled Starling or Locust Bird {Dilophus carunculatus) captures

locusts in the air and, with a snap, he shears off the victim's wings
and legs.

8. The Noisy Robin Chat or Piet-myn-vrouw (Cossy/ra bico/or) slays the

insects which lurk in the trees and issue forth before sunrise and
after sundown.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

obstacles in their way. When the Mormons first
settled in Utah, hordes of black crickets swarmed
down from the mountains and swept off their crops to
the last seedling. What were vast fields of wheat in
the morning were as bare as freshly-harrowed land in
the evening. The first year's crop was a total failure.
The second year's crop promised to yield a huge
harvest, for the weather conditions were ideal, but the
cricket host again swarmed down and laid the land bare,
leaving not a blade of wheat. The Mormons became
panic-stricken, for they were on the brink of starvation.
Suddenly, as though sent from heaven, hundreds of
thousands of Franklin's gull appeared and devoured
the crickets, thus saving the settlers from extinction.

Finding ample food for its needs, this species of
gull has been a regular visitor to Utah, and continues
to keep the crickets in check. It is, consequently,
held sacred by the inhabitants, who have erected a
monument to it in Salt Lake City, so that posterity may
know these gulls were, and are, keeping the insect
hosts in check, and thus preserving the State from the
financial ruin which would otherwise overtake it.

Every country has its hosts of vegetation-devouring
insects, and these are kept in check by the native birds.
Occasionally they gain the upper hand in one or more
localities, but the birds soon discover the fact, and flock
to the threatened area and quickly reduce the ranks
of the invading host. Should the birds increase
unduly in numbers, there is a dearth of insect food,
resulting in the migration or dying off of considerable
numbers of birds. This decrease in birds again gives

26

BIRDS

the insects a chance to increase, and so the pendulum
of Nature swings to and fro until man spreads over
the land and begins tilling the soil. Finding certain
species of birds are taking some slight payment in
grain or fruit for their immensely valuable services,
he foolishly begins a war of extermination upon birds
generally. Apart from any damage the birds may
do, it is a practice common in all newly-developed
countries for colonists to destroy the native birds for
the pot, and often for
no other reason than to
gratify the brutal desire
to kill, which is inherited
from our remote bar-
barian cave-dwelling
ancestors. Nay ! we do
our primitive ancestors a
grievous wrong in mak-
ing this comparison.

They hunted and killed animals and birds for food
and raiment, impelled by dire necessity. We, on the
contrary, kill for the mere lust of killing.

When a boy or youth acquires a gun, he invariably
sallies forth seeking " something to kill." He knows
no better, for his parents and teachers have not taught
him that animals and birds are warm-blooded creatures
with nervous systems as sensitive to pain as ours,
and that they love, mate, rear families, and live lives
of greater wisdom and usefulness than many of the
men who foolishly believe they have the moral right to
persecute and murder them at will.

27

The Caterpillar defoliates our shrubs
and trees. The bird is its enemy.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

This thoughtless and foolhardy practice of killing
the native birds brings retribution sharp and severe
upon the pioneer. The swarms of insects, finding
the produce of the cultivated fields more succulent
fare than the native vegetation to which they were
accustomed, abandon the latter and invade the former.
The new diet being so abundant and nourishing, they
multiply with alarming rapidity. Their rapid increase
is powerfully favoured, and indeed made easy, owing
to the farmer, his sons, and employees having persecuted
the birds so relentlessly that the survivors had fled
in terror to the wilds.

A servant is surely worthy his hire. Apparently
this is not so with our good and useful helpers — the
birds. Those which are purely insectivorous and
take no payment at all are killed, trapped, and their
homes robbed of eggs and young. The species which
take a little payment in the shape of corn or fruit for
their heavy labours on behalf of man, are hated and
hunted relentlessly. Man is, and always has been,
apt to observe superficially and arrive at erroneous
conclusions.

'* You call them thieves and pillagers ; but know
They are the winged wardens of your farms,
Who from the corn-fields drive the insidious foe,
And from your harvests keep a hundred harms.
Even the blackest of them all — the crow —

Renders good service as your man-at-arms,
Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail,
And crying havoc on the slug and snail."

Longfellow.

28

BIRDS

The history of man and his attitude to wild birds
in every country in which he has migrated with his
fire-arms is an example. We have a convincing
instance, in the records of the pioneer farmers of New
Zealand, of the terrible damage which a single species
of caterpillar inflicted upon them. When they began
to cultivate the virgin soil on an extensive scale they,
as is usual with their kind, killed and allowed their
boys to amuse themselves by killing and terrorising
the native birds.

A caterpillar which had hitherto struggled hard for
a living on native vegetation, and had been attacked con-
stantly by hungry, watchful birds, began to invade the
cultivated fields from which the birds had been driven.
To the consternation of the farmers, it multiplied as if
by magic. It swarmed in uncountable hosts and
spread over the land. Beautiful green fields of wheat,
miles in extent, became brown with the hue of this
destructive little creature. Nothing could stop its
advance. It became a blasting army. Thousands of
cattle and sheep were driven to and fro over them, to
no purpose. Horse rollers, steam rollers, and fire
were employed as weapons. Deep trenches of great
extent were dug and covered over when full of cater-
pillars. All human efforts were unavailing. No
apparent impression was made on this mighty insect
host. Railway trains were held up. The engineers
could not plough their way through the overwhelming
hordes of caterpillars. Man was hopelessly defeated —
and by a caterpillar.

It became apparent that the colonisation of the
29

BEAKS AND THEIR USES.

1. The Hadada Ibis {Hagedashia hagedash) uses its beak like we do a piek

to unearth insects and their larvae on which it feeds.

2. The African Spoonbill {Platalea alba) uses its flat, spoon-like beak to

explore for shellfish, crabs, and worms in the mud, and also for
snapping up small fishes and aquatic insects.

3. The Grey Heron {Ardea cinered) stands immovable in the water and

impales the fish and frogs which come within striking distance.

4. The Cormorant {Phalacrocorax lucidus) pursues fishes under water in

the ocean and tidal rivers, and kills them with the sharp point of his
powerful beak.

3'

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

country could not be proceeded with. All man's
efforts to check the conquering host proved as effective
as a child's bank of sand erected on the seashore to stem
the incoming tide. The one and only hope of salvation
lay with the native birds. The chastened farmers,
repenting of their folly, did their utmost to encourage
the birds to return.

The birds had, however, suffered so severely from
his treachery and his murderous weapons that those
which ventured on his fields fled in terror at sight of
him. Until the advent of the European, the birds
had lived in loving friendship with the Maoris. They
now refused to be propitiated. Their experiences had
made them excessively suspicious of all human-folk.
As a last resource, and as a final despairing experiment,
the Government introduced birds from England.
The one which made itself thoroughly at home and
bred most rapidly was the common house sparrow
{Passer domesticus). To the help rendered by this
much-despised and persecuted bird the New Zealand
farmers owed their salvation. Indeed, the entire
population was rescued from destitution and red ruin,
for those resident in the villages and towns were
dependent upon the farming community directly and
indirectly for a living.

The great majority of reptiles are useful allies in
our war against insects, but most of them cease to
feed, and hibernate during the winter months ; and
even when they are abroad their needs are not large
in the way of food, very little satisfying them.

On the contrary, birds feed daily throughout the

BIRDS

year. They have a high bodily temperature and lead
an active life, entailing a great expenditure of muscle
and nerve energy, with a considerable loss of heat,
consequently their requirements in the way of food are
large. Nature has provided for this in giving the bird
a strong and rapid digestion, which impels it to seek
food at frequent intervals. When the parent birds
have a nestful of youngsters to provide for, they are
on the war-path from daylight until dusk. A pair of
birds with four nestlings destroy as many insects as a
dozen single birds, because the rapidly-growing fledg-
lings require an abundance of food. Birds are not
only formidable foes of insects, but they help very
largely in keeping weeds and other forms of undesir-
able vegetation in check. Also they are largely
instrumental in forming forests, both by sowing tree
seeds broadcast, and by protecting the growing trees
against the ravages of insects.

Birds which feed largely on fruit and berries do
not, as a general rule, digest the seeds ; these pass
through their digestive organs unchanged.

On the contrary, the true seed-eating birds, which
feed chiefly on the seeds of weeds, digest the seeds
completely, and thus render man very valuable
services.

When these birds attack corn-lands in unusually
large numbers, of course it lies with each farmer to
use his judgment as to whether the harm they are doing
is paid for in full or not by the weed seeds and insects
they devour. It must be remembered that birds lay
their eggs during the spring and early summer, conse-
vol. i. 23 3

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

quently the young are born when the crops are green,
tender, and especially attractive to caterpillars and
other insects which are naturally most abundant at that
time. It is, in fact, the Creator's provision against
abnormal outbreaks of insect life. It means that at
the very time when insects are most abundant and
capable of doing the maximum amount of harm in
cultivated lands, their enemies the birds begin rearing
their families. This means an enormously increased
consumption of insects. Numbers of birds, when
adult, live mainly, and sometimes entirely, on seeds,
but they feed their nestlings on caterpillars and other
kinds of destructive larvae.

Therefore let no man raise his hand against any of
our feathered helpers without long and careful observa-
tion and subsequent deliberation. The troubles of the
New Zealand farmers were not at an end with the
suppression of the insect peril. The Scotch thistle
had been accidentally or intentionally introduced. It
flourished exceedingly in its new environment, and
bid fair to take possession of the entire country. The
farmers utterly spent themselves in energy and money
in their desperate struggle to overthrow this new
enemy which threatened their very existence.

They cut and burnt the plants, poured turpentine
on the split stumps to kill the roots, and in other ways
sought to exterminate this formidable weed. Their
labours were in vain. The weed had come to stay,
for the climate was genial, and strongly favoured its
rapid growth. The wind carried the clouds of thistle-
down far and wide and, wherever it fell, a plant sprang

34

1. The Crombec Warbler makes a nest of cobwebs.

2. Bakbakiri Shrike, or Cock-a-Vick. One of the shrikes (female) in this

illustration is a partial albino.

3. The Little White-eye, or Glas-oogie, builds its nest between two twigs.

4. The Large Yellow Seed-eater's nest is usually found in a shrub.

5. The Crowned Lapwing, or Kiewitje, lays its eggs on the bare ground.

6. The Thick-knee also rears her family on the ground.

35

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

to life. The pest steadily advanced until the fields
were covered with dense masses of prickly plants
struggling one with another for elbow-room.

Again the sparrow, which had saved the colonists
from the insect invasion, came to the rescue. These
birds had multiplied and overspread the country, and
it was a fortunate circumstance for the farmers that
they had found the country so congenial. In tens of
thousands the sparrows assembled and fed upon the
seeds of the thistle. Possibly an ancestral liking for
it had been revived, for they abandoned all other
kinds of seeds and fed exclusively on it, and the weed
was vanquished ; for, aided so magnificently by their
feathered allies, the farmers were able to get it under
control.

Man's memory for good and kind services rendered
is short. Injure him in any way, however, and his
memory is long — regrettably long. Man readily forgets
a kindness, but an injury rankles long and persistently
in his brain cells, like a noxious parasitic growth.

Buckland tells us that the sparrow was regarded in
his day in New Zealand " as an impudent thief, without
any redeeming feature in its character." True, when
the sparrow increases abnormally in numbers, it does
considerable harm. The too rapid increase of the
bird may be checked with advantage at times in and
about settlements, but in the light of past experiences
the New Zealanders would be indeed unwise ever to
organise campaigns for its entire extermination. In
the face of numerous and bitter complaints and revil-
ings from farmers against the sparrow, there are

36

BIRDS

enormous yearly harvests. In fact, New Zealand is
famed throughout the world for its bountiful and
unprecedented harvests of grain.

The average man reasons from effect to cause in
a very superficial way. The New Zealand farmer, for
instance, saw the sparrow eating his grain. The
bird, therefore, stood condemned. It was stealing
some of his property. His mind was aflame with the
desire for revenge. He did not pause to consider
why he had such a heavy crop of grain. If he did
he would, perchance, have realised it was because of
the absence of caterpillars and noxious weeds, and
that the sparrow was largely responsible for this
desirable state of things.

The farmer willingly pays his human labourers
their hire, and carefully feeds and cares for his draught
animals ; but when the bird takes five or perhaps
ten per cent, of the wages it is entitled to, the short-
sighted husbandman is loud in his complaints against
the " impudent thefts " of his wageless labourers.
Not a grain will he willingly give to the bird that
has helped him.

A typical instance came to my notice in Natal.
A farmer of my acquaintance growled loud and long
at the birds which ate his corn. He took me round a
great field of ripening corn and pointed out the
damage seed-eating birds had done. Yes, true enough
the grain had been eaten along the fringes of the field.
The evidence was conclusive to the farmer, so he, his
sons, and servants made war on the birds ; they
were shot, trapped, snared, and their nests destroyed.

37

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

He visited a neighbouring colony of weaver birds,
and with a shot-gun demolished over a hundred
hanging nests with their living contents. He gloried
in the work of slaughter. He would exterminate these
rascally, thieving birds. Those he did not kill fled in
frenzied terror from the neighbourhood to safer
hunting grounds. He kept up this campaign for two
years. The third season I happened to visit him.
" Well, how are the crops ? " I asked. " Miserable ;
never had a poorer crop of forage, and what there
is of it is mixed with weeds." The next season was
worse ; the crop wasn't worth harvesting, and in
disgust he turned his cattle into it. I explained to
him that from the time the seed was harrowed into the
soil, the insects had been busy below ground and
above ground devouring the germinating corn, the
roots, and the tender growing plants. The surviving
plants were unable to outgrow and smother the weeds,
and consequently the latter grew and reached maturity,
scattering their undesirable seeds over his lands.

If this farmer had confined his slaughter of the
birds to reducing to normal those species which had
increased abnormally, it would have been well for him.

The head gardener of Sheffield Union, after
thirty-five years' experience of the economic value of
birds, says: —

" In the trying summer of 191 1, bird-life played
a very conspicuous part in our efforts to combat the
ravages of insects. The birds generally known as
seed-eaters became prominent insect feeders. I can
say this from very personal experience, being respon-

38

1. Nest of the Silenl Hush Robin, or Fiska] Flycatcher, in a tree.

2. The nest of the Cape or Olivaceous Thrush in the fork of a tree.

3. The familiar Cape Rohin Chat builds its nest in hedges and shrubs.

4. The nest of the dainty Bar-throated Warbler in a low bush.

5. Cape Bulbul, with egg of Cuckoo.

G. The neat and cosy nest of the ( lape ( )anary is placed high up in a tree

39

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

sible for the supply of 30,000 to 40,000 cabbages
and cauliflowers, and tons of turnips, carrots, etc.,
and my experience has been that of many. There
was never such a season when everything was overrun
with insect filth, but in a most remarkable way seed-
eating birds like linnets, sparrows, finches, and
many others swarmed down upon the fields and ate
up legions. But for this there must have been an
absolute famine in these vegetables."

It must be borne in mind that the cultivation of
land -powerfully favours an eruption of insects^ and that
as a consequence an unusually large number of birds are
required to keep them in check.

In South Africa the migratory locust does immense
damage to crops, pasturage, and forests. For twenty
years and more a campaign has been waged against
this mighty host. The fight still proceeds with
varying success. The slightest relaxation of the
pressure exerted by the Agricultural Department of
Government and the farmers is quickly followed by
an increase in the numbers of devastating swarms of
locusts.

Here again we have cause and effect. Ever since
the advent of the European settler to South Africa,
the wild birds have been persecuted. The so-called
game birds — such as guinea-fowl, partridge, and quail,
the storks, cranes, herons, and ibises — have been
harried, hunted, and slain. As a direct result of this
steady reduction of their chief natural enemies, the
locusts and grasshoppers have increased abnormally.
Ave ! truly our sins have overtaken us. Money

40

BIRDS

has been spent like water in the endeavour to over-
throw the enemy.

This locust campaign has already cost South Africa
millions sterling in active war against this plague.

Both in Natal and the Cape I have systematically
examined the contents of the crops and stomachs of
birds of different species at varying seasons.

During a locust invasion I counted over 2,000
very young locusts in the crop of a white stork
(Ciconia alba). Taking the number at 2,000 daily,
we have 60,000 locusts disposed of in a month by
a single bird.

A farmer brought in some guinea-fowls he had
shot during a hunt out upon the veld. In the crops
of five of these I discovered nearly 100,000 locust
eggs.

The crop of a cattle egret {Bubulcus ibis) contained
1,200 newly hatched locusts, 400 grasshoppers, 51
ticks, 8 beetles, and 3 caterpillars. The crop of a
bald ibis {Geronticus calvus) contained 3 1 winged
locusts, 760 young grasshoppers, 178 insects of various
kinds and their larvae.

The majority of the bird enemies of locusts are
migratory in their habits, and only visit South Africa
from the north during the warm season of the year
when insect life is abundant.

Birds are highly intelligent and timid creatures,
and finding South Africa so full of human enemies,
they migrate to less dangerous regions, and conse-
quently from year to year migratory birds visit us in
ever-decreasing numbers.

4i

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

For instance, the little locust bird or kliene
sprinkhaanvogel (Glareola melanopterd) was to be
found in large flocks every summer season in the
neighbourhood of Pietermaritzburg. The youths of
the city, finding the bodies of these faithful allies were
good for making pies, began a campaign of extermina-
tion. Within five years not a single bird of this
species was to be seen, not because they had all been
killed, but, finding themselves so inhospitably received,
they no longer visited their old hunting grounds.
The result was a plague of grasshoppers, which for
many years devastated the pasture lands and made
gardening almost an impossibility.

The extermination or driving away of a single
species of bird may, and often does, result in a
plague of some sort.

For instance, in Australia, grasshoppers every
summer season are a menace to the farmer. Should
their natural enemies, the birds, be reduced in numbers
for any reason, the grasshoppers rapidly multiply and
lay waste the crops and pasturage.

The straw-necked ibis (Carphibis spinicollis) is the
bird which is mainly responsible for holding these
pests in check. A rookery of these ibises was visited,
and it was estimated 200,000 birds were breeding
there. Some specimens were procured, and it was
ascertained by actual counting that the average contents
of the crop of a single bird totalled 2,400 young grass-
hoppers and some snails and caterpillars : 200,000
birds would therefore dispose of about 480,000,000
grasshoppers per day. This vast number would

42

1. The pointed and curved beak of the Secretary Bird is an efficient

weapon for killing rats and other vermin.

2. White Stork {Ciconia alba). The beak of a bird is a weapon of offence

and defence. Also a tool with which it procures food.

43

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

be consumed every day by the nestling birds alone,
and the parent birds would necessarily have to
procure a further supply for their own needs. It
can thus be realised what a colossal work this one
rookery of ibises was doing for man.

Without the ibises successful agriculture would
be impossible in Australia. When grasshoppers are
scarce the ibis feeds chiefly on a fresh-water snail,

which is the intermediary
host of the dreaded liver
fluke that destroys large
numbers of sheep.

" What is everybody's
business is nobody's busi-
ness " is a very true saying.
In the instance of the
ibises in Australia we see it
explained, for, notwithstand-
ing the immense services
rendered to the individual
and the State as a whole,
people actually visited these rookeries and collected
the eggs in cartloads. An instance is mentioned of a
party in 1912 having gathered so enormous a quantity
of eggs that they were unable to take them all away,
and left 4,800 eggs to rot on the ground. Bird
protection laws are useless unless the people of the
country actively assist in helping to enforce the laws.
An agitation is got up, and a public law is made,
interest lapses. No combined and sustained efforts
are made to have the law enforced. No trouble is

When we kill the parents the
bahy birds perish miserably.

44

BIRDS

taken to educate the populace into a knowledge of
the existence of the laws.

Birds breed when the farmers' crops are young
and tender, and when not persecuted they build their
nests in the vicinity of the growing crops, knowing
full well there will be an abundance of fat caterpillars
on the cultivated lands for their needs. Many a
time I have sat, hidden in a bush, watching a colony
of weaver birds flying to and from the farmers' fields,
bringing one or more caterpillars every journey for
their hungry children. One pair of weaver birds
made sixty journeys in two hours. Assuming each
brought back one caterpillar every journey, the pair
of birds would have removed 120 caterpillars from the
farmers' fields in two hours. A full day's work would
account for 960 caterpillars. Usually two to five
small caterpillars are the result of each journey. The
average accounted for in a day by a pair of birds
would probably be 1,500.

The colony under observation totalled 1 1 3 pairs
of birds, and these would collect at least 150,000
caterpillars a day. Yet it is a common practice through-
out South Africa to permit children, both white and
coloured, to rob birds' nests of eggs or young. Should
he not require either, the boy gratifies his destructive
instincts by pelting the nest with stones, or riddling
them with pellets from an air-gun, shot-gun, or cata-
pult. It is, indeed, high time this wanton and alarm-
ing slaughter of our feathered allies ceased. Boys are
not by nature cruel. Their many brutal and some-
times diabolically cruel acts perpetrated on defenceless

45

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

animals, birds, and reptiles are due to utter lack of
the proper kind of instruction.

Until economic Natural History is taught in
schools, in the lecture hall, and in popular writings,
the country will go on suffering from the effects of the
indiscriminate destruction of our native birds and
other useful fauna.

What we need is more education of the heart, or,
in other words, humane education. What is humane
education ? It means the careful, systematic training
and development of the brain centres which give rise
to feelings of pity, unselfishness, and sympathy with
all suffering creatures ; a desire to prevent cruelty
and to make the lot of others, both human and animal,
as happy as it is humanly possible, by kind acts, words,
thoughts, and sympathy. The man or woman who
lives entirely for the gratification of selfish desires is
a parasite upon a community — an ever-present evil
example to the young. Longfellow fully realised this
when he wrote: —

" How can I teach your children gentleness,
And mercy to the weak, and reverence for life,
When by your laws, your actions, and your speech
You contradict the very things I teach ? "

America is far in the lead in her efforts to teach
her children their duty towards the animal folk.
The educational authorities in that country are rapidly
realising that cramming a child's brain with a quantity
of dry facts is not education. It is certainly necessary
to educate the intellectual lobes of the brain in certain

46

BIRDS

ways to fit the girl or hoy for her or his future career,
but a man may even possess the finest university train-
ing it is possible to
get, yet that man
may be an a 1 1 -
round blackguard.
Why? Because
in such a case
the moral, spiritual,
and humane lobes
of his brain have
not been cultivated;
they have been
starved and con-
sequently enfeebled,
hence the man uses
his educated intel-
lect to provide ways
and means for the
gratification of his
perverted lower

Birds

Nest box suspended from a tree.

cannot breed unless they have suitable
nesting sites. The wise farmer pro-
vides them.

passions and other

selfish desires. There is deep wisdom in what Cowper

says : —

" I would not enter on my list of friends —
Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility — the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm."

The beautiful white egret was nearly exterminated
in Egypt by the plume trade. The Egyptian Zoo-

47

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

logical Service took the matter up just in time. A
worm was devastating the cotton crops, and thousands
of people were being steadily but surely beggared.
The Egyptian Zoological Service did not preach
humanity or kindness. The natives were simply told :
" A worm is destroying your cotton crops. The
egret feeds on those worms. The plumage hunters
kill the egret for profit and take the money out of the
country. The matter is in your hands." That
was enough : the egret has at last come into his
own. From a few captive egrets in the Zoological
Gardens fifteen egrets were hatched in 1 9 1 3. These
have now multiplied and spread all over Egypt.
It is universally admitted the egret has saved Egypt's
population from penury and averted national
bankruptcy.

If a man possesses one talent and cultivates and
uses it for unselfish purposes, he is an infinitely better
man than he who has two talents and uses them for
the acquirement of wealth for self-gratification. Man
is so absorbed in the pursuit of wealth and the gratifica-
tion of personal desires and passions that he has no
time for study and meditation. Does he pause and
consider when he buys his boy an air-gun or shot-
gun ? Does he ask himself what use his son is
likely to make of the gift ? If he considers the matter
at all he will know that the impelling instinct of a
boy is to sally forth and kill some defenceless creature
unless he has previously received a thorough moral
and humane education. To refrain from committing
a harmful or dishonourable act only because of the

48

1. The Pink-billed Weaver associates in colonies, and builds small round

nests on the branches of trees— usually the mimosa.

2. The Black and Yellow Bishop bird weaves a big nest of grass between

two reeds. .

3. The Scaly-feathered Weaver's nest is a mass of dry grass placed in a

tree. The entrance hole is at the side.

4. The Black-headed Oriole builds a nest of lichen in the upper branches

of a tree.

VOL. I

49

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

fear of consequences is despicable in the extreme. It
is not " cricket." It reflects no credit on a man at
all. He cannot claim to be on a higher level than the
sub-human kingdom of the animal creation until his
actions are controlled by a developed moral and
spiritual mentality.

I have seen too much of the evil wrought by

boys with guns
amongst our
feathered friends
and helpers, the
birds. Even the
swallow and the
martin, of all
birds, were not
sacred to them.
These birds rank
highest in value
to man. Their
sole food consists
of insects and
allied forms of
life which are captured on the wing. These winged
insects are adult males and females which seek one
another in the air for the purpose of mating. The
impregnated females find out a favourable environment
and deposit their eggs. Insects, with but few excep-
tions, lay immense numbers of eggs, therefore the
destruction of one mature female insect is equal to the
extermination of many hundreds and even thousands
of larvae, such as caterpillars.

5°

A Bird House for the garden or stoep. Birds
require shelter from sun, wind, frost, and
rain at times.

BIRDS

Martins and swallows rear broods of from four
to six, according to the species. The young are fed
on insects captured on the wing.

The authorities in a certain South African town
objected to the " unsightly appearance " of a number of
swallows' nests under the eaves and other sheltered nooks
and corners on the town hall. The fire brigade was
turned out, and strong jets of water were turned on to the
mud nests. Over 300 were washed down with the
nestling birds, which perished miserably. Taking the
average number of young in each nest at four, we have
1,200 young and 600 adults. Each family destroys
on an average 2,000 flies, gnats, winged weevils, and
aphides in a day. It will thus be seen this little colony
of swallows destroyed more than one million insects
daily. These were taken in and near the vicinity of
the town. Comment on the action of the authorities
of that town is needless.

Mr Eustace Montgomery, the late Director of
Veterinary Research in South Africa, stated in 19 19
that the annual losses of stock farmers in the Union
of South Africa from preventable diseases were not less
than ^8,000,000.

These stock diseases, with but few exceptions, are
due to injection of disease microbes through the
mediumship of insects and allied forms of life. This
does not end the trouble. Our indifference to the
welfare of our bird allies results in an abnormal increase
in the numbers of insects which destroy pasturage
and crops, bringing about an insufficiency of food for
stock animals. The lucerne caterpillar, for instance,

51

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

attacks and demolishes great fields of beautiful green
lucerne. The army moth caterpillar blasts the veld and
crops as by fire. Clouds of migratory locusts in the
winged and wingless stages eat up both crops and
pasturage. Hundreds of other destructive pests take
their unearned share of food which ought to be avail-
able for our stock animals.

We have great ideals, aye ! beautiful dreams of
South Africa's fair lands sustaining a population of
twice and many times more than its present number.
But do we combine and utilise our available resources
to bring our ideals to fruition ? No ! we may be
aptly compared with the farmer who possesses a
hundred fertile acres and only makes use of half a
score of them.

The United States Department of Agriculture has
estimated (1921) that insects damage the nation's
crops to the vast extent of 2,000,000,000 dollars
annually. The Entomological Branch of the Canadian
Department of Agriculture say that insects cause
a loss of at least £25,000,000 to their country.

When will man cease to slay his feathered soldiers
and policemen ? The injustice, the brutality, the
stupidity of his action in destroying his feathered friends
and allies is inexcusable. There is no excuse for
ignorance. Ornithologists and entomologists have
raised their voices in protest, but they are heeded not.
Men turn a deaf ear and continue to pursue the
methods of their uninformed ancestors. The men
who retard human progress most seriously are those
who are ignorant of their ignorance. What is urgently

BIRDS

needed is to teach the people the value of our native
birds, and to provide the necessary machinery for the
enforcement of bird protection laws. In South Africa
the majority of wild birds are under the protection of
the law, but no efforts are made to either enforce
these laws or to educate the school children on the
subject.

How long are we to allow these allies to be at the
mercy of the trap, the snare, the catapult, and the gun
of the ignorant ? Just so long as we permit this
unreasoning and callous slaughter of our birds, we shall
have our crops, our orchards, our pasturage, and our
forests riddled and damaged by the insect armies.

Birds seek out and devour the worms in the wood,
the caterpillars on the crops, the aphides on the shrubs,
the fruit and disease-carrying flies in the air, the wire-
worms and other larvae underground, and pests which
are wounding and slaying all forms of useful plant
life. In Canada and the United States of America
strong efforts have been and are being made to reduce
the gigantic losses which are caused by the depreda-
tions of insects. It is estimated (19 15) that the birds
of Nebraska eat 1 70 cartloads of insects a day. This
was the calculation of an eminent naturalist. He also
estimated that the birds of Massachusetts destroyed
21,000 bushels of insects daily; and a single species
of hawk saved the farmers of the Western States
175,000 dollars a year by destroying grasshoppers
and field mice.

When you take life away with one blow, do you
not sometimes think how powerless you are to make

S3

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

live again that which you have killed ? When you
kill a bird, does not remorse sometimes overtake you
when you think what a miracle of machinery you
have stopped by a thoughtless act ?

" We pass through this world but once. Any
good we can do, therefore, or any kindness, let us do
it now, for we shall not pass this way again."

BIRDS AND THE ORCHARD

Old colonists in South Africa all tell the same tale
of how, long ago, the fruit trees were laden with good,
sound fruit. Now, the fruit grower in order to obtain
even an average crop, is obliged to wage unceasing
war on the hosts of insects which devour the trees
or lay their eggs in the ripening fruit, rendering it
maggoty and useless. Should he grow careless and
become slack in his offensive or defensive measures,
his crop is ruined. Nearly all this mischief started
in and near the towns and villages. Boys and even
grown men wantonly persecuted the birds and robbed
their nests, and the latter, in consequence, became
increasingly shy and scarce. The disappearance of the
birds brought about an abnormal increase of the various
insects which attack fruit trees and the ripening fruit.
Larvae of beetles tunnel the trunks and branches ;
caterpillars and certain species of beetles feed on
the foliage ; flies and moths lay eggs in the fruit.
Farmers, in their anxiety to destroy the fruit-eating

54

1. The Drongo weaves its nest between two branches.

2. The nest of the Turtle Dove is a flimsy structure of twigs and rootlets

3. The nest of the Tchagra Bush Shrike is built in a thick bush.

4. The Bakbakiri Shrike rears its family in a nest in a low shrub.

5. The Cape Rock Thrush builds its nest among rocks, or under a stone.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

birds, such as the muis vogel and bulbul, used little
or no discrimination. The sight of a bird in the fruit
trees is proof to them it is a pest. Even should a man
confine himself to shooting true fruit-eating birds,
the frequent discharge of his shot-gun will damage the
trees and terrify all the birds in the neighbourhood,
causing them to abandon the locality for a safer habitat.
Unless other means such as pellet guns are used, it is
often more profitable to allow the fruit-eating birds
to take a toll of the fruit than to lose the entire crop
and risk damage to the trees themselves by insects
and their larvae.

If decoy bulbuls and muis vogels are placed in
cages and limed twigs are placed over or near the
cages, considerable numbers of these birds may be
caught. Another method is the trap cage. The
mouse bird or muis vogel can be destroyed in three
ways : —

i. Injecting a solution of strychnine into ripe
fruit. This is a rather risky proceeding, and may
easily lead to accidental poisoning of children.

2. The muis vogels have a habit of roosting in a
bunch, clustering like a swarm of bees. If their roost-
ing place can be located, a single charge of small shot
will destroy a large number. . On cold, cloudy days
they may often be seen in clusters in the fruit trees.

3. The most efficient way is to trap them. The
trap is a simple contrivance, and is made of ^-inch
mesh wire netting stretched on a frame of No. 6 or
No. 7 fencing wire, and fashioned like an eel trap
with a funnel at one end. Some fruit is placed on a

56

BIRDS AND THE ORCHARD

hook, made of wire, inside the trap, and the trap is
placed in a fruit tree or in a tree near the orchard.
The muis vogel being a climbing bird, the trap should
be placed with the funnel end below. If put in a fruit
tree, a branch with fruit on could be pushed into the
trap. The trap should be about 3 feet by 1 foot.
Fruit growers should have several of these traps in
various parts of the orchard.

The persecution of birds in the neighbourhood
of towns and villages and on some farms has now
resulted in South Africa being absolutely overrun by

Birds clear the twigs of clusters of insects' eggs.

fruit and tree destroying insects. Man seeks by
costly, and at best very imperfect, ways to stem the
invasion, but in the end his efforts prove futile.
Already fruit growing is being abandoned because
it entails so much expense and expenditure of time
in combating the hordes of insects which swarm down
upon the orchards. The rescue of the fruit industry
from eventual extinction rests with the native birds.
In the bird army we have an efficient ally in our fight
against the insect fruit pests. It is not recommended
that we cease our manifold artificial methods of attack
and defence against the enemy. Let us also avail
ourselves of the help which the birds can render.

57

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

All they ask is protection. Then, why not be up
and doing ? It is not enough that we individually
refrain from persecuting the birds. We must combine
and protect these valuable helpers from molestation
by ignorant, irresponsible, and morally degenerate
folk.

Before raising his hand in anger against any bird,
the fruit grower should ponder well, lest by the removal
of one evil he brings a greater upon himself. Some
species of birds supplement a large insect diet by a
little fruit, or devour it only in times of drought
when no water is available ; others peck the seeds
from fruit already partly eaten by true fruit-eating
birds or beetles ; others, again, attack maggoty fruit
and feed on the maggots, fruit flies, and beetles, and
not the fruit. Some birds peck off buds now and then,
but no species of South African bird is, so far, guilty
of this crime to any very serious extent. When the
English house sparrow (Passer domesticus) increases
abnormally, it does considerable damage to budding
fruit trees, and at times it becomes necessary for man
to considerably reduce the numbers of this rapidly
breeding bird owing to its natural enemies having
been practically exterminated in Great Britain.

A man who grows fruit as a hobby, or who is backed
up by large capital, may possibly ward off the attacks
of insects to a limited extent by artificial means ; but,
nevertheless, he has no moral right to use his influence
to deprive the poorer class of fruit growers of their
only ally, the birds.

Buckland mentions an instance of man's hasty

58

Black and Grey Cuckoo {Coccystes phyopinarius) at the nest of a Cape

Bulbul {Pycnonotus capensis). This cuckoo laid a large while

egg in the bulbul's nest, and, taking one of its host's eggs in its

mandibles, it flew away.

The Cuckoo's egg, and the two eggs of the bulbul, are shown in the

illustration.

This happened on 18th December 1919.

59

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

judgment, and the result. Frederick the Great of
Prussia, angered because a flock of sparrows had
pecked and spoiled some of his cherries, issued an
order that every small bird on his estate be searched
out and killed. Within two years his beloved cherry
trees were bare of fruit, but heavily weighted with
caterpillars instead.

The only fruit-eating birds which do not earn
their wages to my knowledge are the coly or mouse
bird (Muis vogel), the bulbuls, known as the kuifkop,
geelgat, topknot, black head, and tiptol.

In some localities the red-winged starling or
rooivlark {Amydrus morio) ravages the orchards.

Poisoning fruit to kill fruit-eating birds is often
a harmful and wasteful practice, because large numbers
of birds are poisoned which resort to the orchard to
peck at fruit already damaged by the true fruit-eating
birds, beetles, flies, and maggots. I have seen wood-
peckers and other eminently useful insectivorous birds
lying dead under trees, some of the fruit of which
had been poisoned.

The following experience of the owner of a large
cherry orchard in Kent, England, is interesting
reading : —

' Two men were constantly employed in the early
summer to shoot bullfinches, chaffinches, wood-
pigeons, and indeed every bird that dared to chirp.
An ominous stillness pervaded the orchard and,
notwithstanding the money wasted in labour, powder,
and shot, the crops were far below the average, owing to
the depredations of thousands of caterpillars that fed

60

BIRDS AND THE ORCHARD

upon the young fruit buds and in due course upon the
leaves, hanging by silken cords from the branches.
In this case it would have been better and cheaper to
have left the birds alone rather than to have cultivated
such a magnificent crop of caterpillars. These, of
course, carried on the mischief on a much more
extensive scale the following year."

Mr Joseph Witherspoon, of Red Rose Vineries,
Chester-le-Street, writes as follows : —

" Of that class of people, forming so large a
portion of our population (in England), who never
bestir themselves save when their interests are attacked,
birds have much reason to complain. With them a
bird's existence is ignored, save during the short
period of the year when, undoubtedly, they do consume
somewhat of that which is of more or less value. It
was my fortune to be reared in a school where birds
were certainly not regarded as friends. My father,
a market gardener, encouraged me to destroy every
nest I found ; and it was possessed with much the
same feeling that, after being engaged in other pursuits
for thirty years, I returned to the calling of my boyhood,
and also commenced growing fruit under glass. I
soon discovered that insects were seriously destructive
both inside and outside, and believing that a good
sharp frost would rid us of the latter, I longed for a
hard winter. The following winter we had 39 degrees
of frost, or below zero. Even fruit trees of some
varieties were killed, and as for birds, in some places
they were all but extinguished. From this period,
sixteen years ago, you may date my becoming a close

61

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

student of the habits of birds, as, with the thrush tribe
all but annihilated, the following summer snails were
a scourge, gooseberry bushes were stripped by in-
numerable caterpillars, and all trees that had been
injured by the frost had their sickly foliage propor-
tionately devoured by the red spider.

" For the protection of my one and a half acres
of trees and fruit bushes, situated some 600 yards
from the town, I have within the vinery walls about
twenty-five pairs of sparrows, and my gooseberry
bushes are never touched. As for sparrows eating
the blooms, I have, as yet, only heard of the perform-
ance. These are stern, unattackable facts. During
the first year, after the serious frost referred to, I
dusted my bushes with hellebore powder. Amid the
shoals of dead caterpillars that lay under every bush
I discovered several dead sparrows, which had been
killed by eating the poisoned pests, and so I had it
proved conclusively that they did eat the gooseberry
caterpillar.

" Birds that are fed on the premises, and that live
and feed amongst the trees, search for and attack the
larvae of grub at every stage of their existence. I
attribute much to having birds bred, and always near,
where you want them, for such never attack buds
ravenously, as do town-bred birds, the latter not being
able, so situated, to secure the green food necessary
for their health. With gooseberry bushes near a
stackyard you will probably find, especially during a
snow storm, that the want of green food has compelled
the birds to eat the buds. Also in early spring, in

Nest of a Hammerkop or Mudlark {Scopus unibretta) in St George's
Park, Port Elizabeth.

It is composed of bark, twigs, bits of paper, rags, and straw, and would fill a

Scotch cart.

63

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the neighbourhood of large towns, the conditions being
similar, everything that is green will be sought for.
Likewise, when gardens are surrounded by woods,
it is only by a liberal use of nets that any reasonable
portion of the fruit can be saved. I provide nesting
places, and thus have birds so near to the caterpillars
and so far away from house morsels, that they devour
the pest greedily. But fruit crops being thereby
secured, we must next draw on our ingenuity to prevent
the birds taking more than their fair tithe. Birds
are very destructive to corn when in the milk state,
and fields, situated near towns, suffer severely. Had
I such a field I would set two school children, the
one from 4 a.m. till 12 and the other from 12 till
8 p.m., each having a crake, to drive the birds away.
If the children cost, say, £1 for the fortnight, I
should perhaps save from £5 to /~io of a crop which,
but for the birds, would be non-existent.

" In part justification of those who would exter-
minate birds, it must be admitted that for perhaps
six weeks in the year, crows, blackbirds, and sparrows
are especially destructive ; but if cultivators would
concentrate their efforts to ' keep them moving ' at
such times to other fields, then they would not be
injurious, and their services would so be secured for
the longer period, the great value of which will only
be known when thousands of grubs are allowed to
breed and devastate through our ignorantly tampering
with the necessary balance so wisely provided.

" As to the hard-billed tribe of birds which destroy
the seed beds, the gardener must protect his beds with

64

BIRDS AND THE ORCHARD

nets, as these species live mostly on seed all the year
round ; indeed, we cannot but be witnesses to the
vast swarms that feed on stubbles and fallows
during the winter months without thinking that
were it not for these birds eating myriads of the
seeds of choking, impoverishing weeds, our corn
crops in thousands of cases would not be worth the
gathering.

" Since writing the above, with a further season for
close observation, I offer a few more remarks on the
labours of my feathered favourites. Whilst many
fruit growers have been racking their brains to discover
still more poisonous compounds for the destruction of
the apple weevil and other insect pests, I have again
found my birds quite equal to the occasion. My
apple crop, in fact, has been so well preserved that I
do not remember to have met with even one fruit
disfigured by insects ; this, too, after, by the aid of
a microscope, discovering many more maggots than I
expected to find. Sure enough the enemy were in
possession, and the battle was rather tough ; but, all
in good time for the fruit crop, the brave birds brilliantly
conquered. In connection with my occupation there
are three things that I love to see, viz., crows following
the plough, ducks (under two months old) in either
vinery or orchard house, and sparrows, especially
during the blooming period, feasting and holding high
converse in an apple tree.

My advice to all is : Think long, think seriously,
and search deeply before attempting to upset the
laws of Nature or disturb the balance of forces
vol. i. 6$ 5

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

established by the Great Designer and Maker of
the Universe.

" The last season I have had further confirmation of
the great value of birds, as within fifty yards of my
sparrow colony my apple orchard has been the wonder
of the neighbourhood, and numerous visitors have come
from adjacent towns to see the sight, all declaring
they never saw the like before."

" Think every morning when the sun peeps through

The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove,
How jubilant the happy birds renew

Their old, melodious madrigals of love !
And when you think of this, remember, too,

'Tis always morning somewhere, and above
The awakening continents, from shore to shore,

Somewhere the birds are singing evermore."

Longfellow.

BIRDS AND THE GARDEN

The garden and cultivated farm are ideal places for
insects to breed and multiply in. Moths, butterflies,
and certain kinds of beetles always deposit their eggs
in the most favourable spot for the development of
their grub and caterpillar children. Therefore it is
only natural that by day and by night these winged
pests should flock in from mountain, forest, veld, and
valley to deposit their eggs amongst the succulent

66

BIRDS AND THE GARDEN

plants of the garden or green waving corn or wheat
of the fields. The eggs hatch and the larvae instantly
begin their attacks on the vegetation, each according to
its kind. Some burrow underground and feed on
the roots ; others bore into the stems of plants and
eat out the pith ; others, again, attack the foliage, the
bud, or unripe grain or fruit. These brigands are
wily. They employ many clever devices to deceive
and to escape the attention of the owner of the produce
they are bent on devouring. In his tours of inspection,
or when labouring in the fields during the daytime, he

Cleaning twigs of clusters of insects' eggs.

sees but few, if any, of his enemies. The birds,
however, from long generations of inherited experience,
know the crafty ways and dodges of these thieving
rascals. At the first streak of dawn the birds are out
and busily searching the ground and vegetation before
the caterpillars have sought a place of concealment
beneath the loose soil, decaying leaves, grass, behind
bark, on the under side of the leaves, etc. Again,
at sundown the birds await the reappearance of the
robbers and snap them up. In fact, except during
the hottest part of the day, birds are busily searching
for their insect prey, merrily chirping, twittering,
and calling affectionately to one another all the
time.

67

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Wise Nature, knowing that the insect army in
richly cultivated fields is at times likely to gain' the
upper hand in spite of the constant onslaughts of
birds during the daylight hours, has provided another
powerful check.

Moths fly by night and lay thousands and tens of
thousands of eggs during the hours of darkness. One
female moth, therefore, is capable of producing a
small army of caterpillars. Every moth destroyed
before it succeeds in depositing its eggs is equal to
killing five hundred or a thousand caterpillars.

The night jar {Caprimulgus), variously known as
the night hawk, goat-sucker, nachtuil, has been
specially evolved by the Creator for the purpose of
preying on insects which fly by night. Emerging
from its leafy retreat at dusk, it is on the hunt the
entire night, and its labours do not cease until dawn.
The number of insect pests it destroys is enormous.
When flying insects are in insufficient numbers to
satisfy its needs, it seeks others on the roads, pathways,
and other bare spots, surprising them while they are in
the act of travelling to seek more succulent vegetation,
or a suitable place in which to hide and change into the
chrysalis state preparatory to issuing forth as fully-
developed winged insects.

From an analysis of the stomachs of a number of
night jars, the following one may be taken as an average
example : —

80 moths; 46 beetles; 8 caterpillars; 21 insects
of various species.

Taking half the moths and beetles to be females,
68

1. A pair of Paradise Flycatchers and nest. The nest is made of lichen,

cobwebs, and moss.

2. The Red-necked Bush Pheasant lays from 8 to 20 eggs in a nest on

the ground in the midst of dense scrub, long grass, or weeds.
The ehieks are active from birth.

.3. The nest hole of a Woodpecker in a dead tree trunk.

69

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

and estimating that each would lay 500 eggs, we have
a total of 31,500. Multiplying this by thirty, we have
the enormous total of 945,000 noxious insects destroyed
in a month of thirty days by a single night jar. Yet,
in an idle moment, or to gratify an insane desire to
kill, or impelled by superstition, a man will deliberately
shoot down such a bird. If the harm fell solely on
that man's head, then there would be some cause for
gratification in the knowledge that the guilty party
had paid the penalty. Unfortunately, the harm falls
upon the community generally. During the summer
season in South Africa the destructive termite,
popularly known as the white ant, sends forth vast
swarms of fertile winged males and females to spread
over the land and found new colonies. These often
issue forth in uncountable hosts on warm nights, and
the night jars get busy and gorge themselves on the
soft, milky bodies of these terrible pests. Every pair
destroyed means one colony less. A single colony
of these termites is capable of doing damage to the
extent of thousands of pounds sterling by eating
fencing posts, the woodwork of houses, destroying the
roots of plants, shrubs, and trees, as well as stored
fodder ; and, in fact, anything dry of a vegetable and
animal nature. The ravages of the white ant in South
Africa seriously impede the development of the
country, therefore the life of any creature which preys
largely upon this pest should be held sacred, and
there is no better ally than the night jar. This
bird is absolutely harmless to man, asking nothing at
all from him for its services except freedom from

70

BIRDS AND THE GARDEN

persecution, so that it may the more efficiently
succour him.

In the Farmers Weekly, 22nd August 19 17, the
following paragraph appeared : —

" A plague of mice is devastating the Dow Country
and destroying crops in every direction, reports the
New Agatha correspondent of the Zoutpansberg Review.
As one passes along at night they quelch under the
horses' feet. Traps are being set in every direction,
and in one field the writer saw over fifty traps set,
but it does not seem to help. Unless the plague
ceases quickly, every bit of grain will be eaten up.
It is said that few snakes have been seen this season,
but whether this fact has anything to do with it or
not is not known."

In another issue of the same journal a farmer
wrote complaining bitterly of the hordes of rats and
mice which were causing extensive destruction to his
crops, young plantations, and orchards. Poisons and
traps had failed, and he was in despair.

Here, again, we have cause and effect. The
owls, hawks, and snakes, which are the natural foes
of these destructive rodents, had been destroyed
in such numbers that the balance of Nature had
been upset, and man was called upon to pay the
penalty.

A small piece of land was specially ploughed and
a few hours later a black crow, or African rook, was
shot on it. We opened the crop and counted thirty-
eight skins of root-devouring beetle larvae in it. Yet
this bird is counted by the agriculturist as a pest.

7i

1 . Nest of Smith's Weaver Bird, with the entrance tube of usual length.

2. Nest of Smith's Weaver Bird, or Bottle Fink, with unusually long-

entrance tube.

3. The Spotted-back Weavers associate in colonies, and build their nests

from the extreme ends of branches.

4. The Yellow Weaver attaches its nest to two water reeds. The entrance

hole is under the front part of the nest.
72

BIRDS AND THE GARDEN

In the large gardens surrounding the Port Eliza-
beth Museum we have a pair of Stanley cranes,
otherwise known as blue cranes. The gardens used to
be swarming with snails {Helix adspersa),
slugs, caterpillars, and underground
larvae. To-day no insect life is to be
seen, and for the past three years these
two cranes have sufficed to keep the
gardens free of. all species of insect
pests, excepting scale and blight.

One man may encourage birds in
his garden or on his farm, but if his
neighbour persecutes them they become
so shy and timid that the sight of a man
sends them flying off to their retreats in
terror. The consequence is, the intelli-
gent and humane farmer suffers equally
with his neighbour, for the frightened
and nervous birds pay his garden and
fields but a hurried visit at daybreak,
and snatch up a few caterpillars and fly
off" in hot haste before their arch-enemy,
who should be their protector, is out
and about. These birds, if protected,
would have remained and fed on cater-
pillars and other noxious insects all day
long. Thus does man prepare a scourge for his own
back. Sometimes a bird is seen busily digging with
its bill on recently planted ground for the dreaded
cut-worms which feed so voraciously on the tiny
shoots before and just after they emerge from the

73

The birds feed
their young
on the cater-
pillars in the
wheat.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

ground. The conclusion invariably arrived at is that the
bird is digging up the germinating seed, and sentence
of death is hastily passed on it. Perchance, after
much exhausting toil, a bird fails to satisfy its hunger
on cut-worms and caterpillars, and is seen to take a
few peas or some grain. This evidence, to the
average human observer, is sufficient justification for
destroying the bird and all its species, although for
every seed it eats a thousand are indirectly saved
by it. For instance, we will take a large field of
wheat as an illustration. From the time the seeds
germinate until the crop is ripe for reaping, cut-
worms, other grubs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and
beetles are steadily devouring it. A caterpillar will
eat at least fifty young wheat plants in the course
of a single day or night. One small bird will
destroy ioo caterpillars a day when they are young,
and ten times that number if it has a nest full
of babies. So, if a bird destroys ioo caterpillars
in a day, and if a caterpillar eats fifty wheat plants,
then the bird is saving 5,000 wheat plants every
day, or 150,000 in a month, from destruction.
Should the bird be feeding five nestlings at the same
time, a minimum of half a million wheat plants would
be saved in a month. Not only this, but if those
caterpillars had come to maturity they would have
changed into butterflies or moths, and the next genera-
tion of caterpillars would have multiplied at least a
thousandfold. This, then, represents a portion of a
breeding bird's labours for the farmer. When the
wheat is ripe, and if it be one of the grain-eating

74

BIRDS AND THE GARDEN

species, it will perhaps seek some slight payment for
its long and arduous services. It will probably be
satisfied with two heads of wheat per day. Is this a
heavy wage for a bird that has been the means of
saving a minimum of 5,000 stalks of wheat a day for
six or eight weeks ? Is this feathered labourer not
worthy of his hire ?

An observant gardener, after thirty years' experience
in the cultivation of fruit, flowers, and vegetables,
says : —

" Often and often I have known rooks and star-
lings charged with pulling up wantonly row after
row of young broad-bean plants, and it is only when
I have pointed out that all the plants had been
previously attacked with the terrible ground pest, the
wire-worm, that a more friendly view has been taken
of the mischief, or so-called mischief, done by the
birds. Precisely the same thing happens in corn-
fields, and the seedling wheat, etc., is strewn about —
evidence as strong as holy writ. By good cultiva-
tion rather than by adventitious means, allowing
birds a free run of the farm, and by placing water at
their disposal, the wise farmer or gardener will leave
most of the birds to carry out their natural functions,
which are largely for his particular benefit."

IS

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

BIRDS AND PASTURAGE

To the stock farmer, birds, with the exception of
eagles, are an unmixed blessing. They ask of him
no return for their services in keeping in check the
insects and rodents which would otherwise devour the
pasturage. When for any reason birds are reduced in
numbers below the normal requirements of Nature,
insects, rats, and mice multiply and become a plague.
Miles of country may thus be spoiled or reduced
considerably in value from a stock-feeding point of
view.

In Natal, many years ago, a storm of icy cold wind
and rain continued for an entire day and night. Stock
and poultry died of cold and exposure in tens of
thousands. The mortality amongst wild birds was
enormous. Before the storm the forest groves, valleys,
and fields were alive with birds, and their cheery calls
echoed everywhere. After the storm the survivors
crept out from their retreats, cold and hungry, and for
two years birds were comparatively scarce. The
blizzard occurred during the winter. The following
season and the one after that were the worst the
farmers, gardeners, fruit and flower growers had ever
experienced. In the absence of birds, the insect
hordes increased and swarmed everywhere. I
happened to have several acres under cultivation,
but the grasshoppers swarmed in such numbers that
not a single plant reached maturity. Kitchen garden-
ing was equally hopeless, for the instant the plants

76

Plate III. — Bacbakiri Shrike (La metritis gutturalis).

The Shrikes protect our gardens, orchards and plantations
from the attacks of insects

BIRDS AND PASTURAGE

pushed their heads above ground they were eaten off
by these voracious grasshoppers, which in a day con-
sume ten times their weight in vegetation. Four
acres of lucerne were attacked by a countless swarm
of green caterpillars, and every leaf found its way
into the inside of a caterpillar. Insects were in
myriads on the veld ; native trees and shrubs suffered
heavily. Migratory birds arrived and helped to check
the enemy's advance until the native birds had once
again increased sufficiently to hurl back the foe. The
loss indirectly occasioned to the farming industry by
the destruction of bird life in that blizzard was
enormous.

In the neighbourhood of Port Elizabeth the pasture
lands for several seasons in succession were invaded
by hairy caterpillars which swarmed everywhere.
They devoured both grass and shrubs, and invaded
the vegetable and flower gardens. My grounds were
a sanctuary for birds, and in consequence they congre-
gated, bred, and slept there in large numbers. I
kept the birds under careful observation, and found
the only one which attacked and ate this uninviting-
looking caterpillar was the silent bush robin, other-
wise known as the black and white flycatcher (Sigelus
silens). This is a sociable little bird, and it builds its
nest in situations easily accessible to the egg-hunting
boy. Consequently its little home is raided and
robbed on a wholesale scale every breeding season.
The adult birds are persecuted and killed by boys
at all times. Some kill them wantonly, but the
majority relentlessly persecute these eminently useful

77

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

birds under the erroneous belief they are fiskal
shrikes, they unfortunately having a superficial
resemblance to that bird. The fiskal shrike, other-
wise known as the jack hanger or butcher bird,
is hated by boys because it
sometimes kills pet cage birds
by settling on the cage and
seizing them between the wires
in its powerful bill, with which
Nature has provided it for its
mission in life as an insect
destroyer.

The reduction of the silent
bush robins resulted in a plague
of these hairy caterpillars, and
considerable damage was done
every spring to pasturage and
gardens, all because of the
thoughtlessness of boys due to
lack of proper teaching.

In various parts of South
Africa, principally in the neigh-
bourhood of villages, I have
seen large areas almost denuded
of vegetation by grasshoppers, cut-worms, and cater-
pillars. The mischief does not end with the loss
of pasturage. Rain falls, and the water rushes rapidly
off the hard, sun-baked surface, and on its way
to the nearest spruit or river it cuts fissures which
develop in time into large dongas and carries away
the soil, leaving stones and pebbles in its wake.

78

Caterpillars eat up the
pasturage.

W^-r-^V

KL

\^1

1. The nest of Burchell's Coucal, or Vlei Loerie.
■2. The Honeysuckers make their nests of cobwebs and lichen.
15. The Cape Longclaw makes .1 nesl on the ground.
4. The Quail also lays her eggs on the ground.
0. Nest of the Stanley Bustard, or Veld Paauw, in the heath.
79

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

When the land is clothed with vegetation, this erosion
of the soil is prevented, and a large percentage of the
water is retained and absorbed by the earth. Here,
again, we have cause and effect. Man destroys the
birds ; insect pests increase and eat up the vegetation ;
pasturage disappears and the land is ruined. These
are the two sides of the picture : — No birds : swarms
of insects ; no food for stock ; barren land. Numerous
birds : few insects ; rich pasturage ; good land, increas-
ing every year in fertility. Verily, as ye sow, that
shall ye also reap.

In the vicinity of Pietermaritzburg, many years
ago, the larks and other grass birds were practically
exterminated by youths and boys with shot and
pellet guns. This resulted in the grass being
eaten off most alarmingly by grasshoppers. The
tender, sweet and nutritious grasses died off and the
hardy wire grass, which is unpalatable to stock, super-
seded it. In other places noxious weeds, which the
grasshoppers would not eat, gained the upper hand,
ripened their seeds and sowed them broadcast, with the
aid of the wind, over the cultivated lands. Thus,
owing to our carelessness and want of specialised
knowledge, or criminal failure to heed the warnings
of naturalists, dire and lasting harm was wrought.

James Buckland mentions an instance which
occurred some years ago in Bridgewater, Massachusetts,
U.S.A. A great battue was held by the ignorant towns-
people in the spring-time, resulting in so many grass
birds being killed that their dead bodies were ploughed
into the land for manure. The people paid dearly for

80

BIRDS AND PASTURAGE

their brutality, for the following year the grass was
attacked below ground and above ground by insect
pests in such numbers that it withered and died as
if blasted by fire.

The wanton destruction of wild birds in one of the
inland districts of Australia, on which large numbers
of settlers had established themselves with the helping
hand of Government some years ago, brought its
punishment swift and sure. Caterpillars and beetles
swarmed over the land and succeeded in converting
wide areas of magnificent pasture land into a barren
waste. The grasses were utterly destroyed owing to
the roots having been devoured.

A similar calamity befell the New Zealand farmers.
The senseless and brutal persecution of native birds
resulted in a plague of crane flies and click beetles.
The larvae of these pests attacked the roots of the rich
meadow grasses, and killed the plants as effectually as
though they had been scorched by heat. This scourge
threatened to spread over the length and breadth of the
land. Again man availed himself of the aid of his per-
secuted feathered friends. The English starling was
introduced. It multiplied rapidly and fed greedily on
the larvae, and saved those undeserving farmers from
having to pay the extreme penalty for their misdeeds.

Without the help of our bird allies there would
be no pasture lands for stock. Every blade of grass
would disappear from the face of this green earth.
The cut-worms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and grubs
would make short work of it, roots and all.

Man would be as powerless in the face of this
vol. i. 8 1 6

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

mighty host as a child in his efforts to stem the advance
of an avalanche. Without the help of birds man would
quickly perish, and Earth would know him no more.
Yet this vital truth is not taught to school children.
They go forth from the schools and, knowing no better,
great numbers of them employ much of their time in set-
ting back the clock of human progress and expansion.

" I saw with open eyes
Singing birds sweet,
Sold in the shops
For people to eat ;
Sold in the shops of
Stupidity Street.

" I saw in vision
The worm in the wheat,
And in the shops nothing
For people to eat ;
Nothing for sale in
Stupidity Street."

Ralph Hodgson.

Partridges are magnificent conservators of pasture
lands. When overabundant in the vicinity of culti-
vated lands, partridges are apt to do a certain amount
of damage. If the farmer, after due consideration,
considers they are doing more harm than good, he can
easily reduce their numbers. He should bear in mind,
however, that they are warring all the time on insect
pests, and that if these insects were allowed to breed
unchecked by the partridges, they would very likely
do his crop 50 per cent, more damage than the birds.
Insects may be compared to weeds in a garden. If

82

BIRDS AND PASTURAGE

weeds are not systematically destroyed, the entire-
garden will soon be overrun with them, and the useful
products choked. So, too, with insects. Kill off
their natural enemies, and they multiply and spread
with even greater rapidity than weeds, until they cover
the entire farm, bringing red ruin to the owner.

The desirability of careful investigation by trained
men into the value or otherwise of birds is brought
home by the fact that the Legislature of Pennsylvania,
on 23rd June 1885, passed an Act known as the
" Scalp Act," for the destruction of hawks, owls,
weasels, and minks, providing a bounty of fifty cents
each. This Act was passed after a great outcry and
much pressure by farmers, and it was fondly hoped
that agriculture would benefit wonderfully.

The law was in operation eighteen months, and
in that period of time 90,000 dollars were paid out
in bounties. Experts subsequently went thoroughly
into the matter and estimated the total annual loss to
poultry in the State of Pennsylvania to be about
1,250 from the depredations of the birds and animals
outlawed. It was calculated that every hawk, owl,
and weasel killed about 900 rats and mice annually.
The result of the operation of this Act for the one and
a half years of its existence was the destruction of
128,571 of the most inveterate enemies of rats and
mice. The experts put down the total loss to agri-
culture for this short period of the reign of stupidity
and ignorance at 3,947,130 dollars, or, to put it in
another way, the State threw away 2,105 dollars for
every dollar saved. This only represented the direct

83

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

loss during the operation of the Act. The destruction
of so great a number of enemies of rats and mice
enabled the latter to multiply until, by slow degrees,
the balance of Nature was restored.

The ultimate loss to the State by this deplorable
interference with the workings of Nature must have
resulted in the loss of at least 50,000,000 dollars.
The destruction of so-called game birds to-day is a
practice which brings financial loss on a very large
scale. The partridge is an example. At intervals
during the game season, which is during the winter
months in South Africa, I examined the contents of a
large number of crops, and they consisted of termites,
beetles, grasshoppers, locusts, slugs, snails, larvae of
a wide assortment of insects ; nodules from the roots
of water grasses ; seeds, and the fleshy roots of weeds,
and those of a few small veld plants.

The contents of stomachs which I examined at
intervals during the summer months consisted of the
same miscellaneous collection, with the addition of a
lar^e number of caterpillars, eggs of locusts, winged
termites, grass and weed seeds.

" The summer came, and all the birds were dead ;
The days were like hot coals ; the very ground
Was burned to ashes ; and in the orchards fed

Myriads of caterpillars, and around
The cultivated fields and garden beds

Hosts of devouring insects crawled, and found
No foe to check their march till they had made
The land a desert without leaf or shade."

Longfellow.

84

BIRDS AND FORESTS

BIRDS AND FORESTS

The forest trees have many enemies. The insect is
by far the most formidable. Remove Nature's checks
on the multiplication and spread of insect life for a
few years, and the forests would be swept out of
existence.

Like a human army the insect host is divided up
into regiments and battalions, and their methods of
attack differ one from an-
other. Each has its special
allotted task to perform.
Some of them attack and
devour the seeds and nuts ;
others eat up the roots of
seedlings. Another kind

j . • The Cuckoo and the Oriole are

deposits eggS in a Crevice in fond of hairy caterpillars.

the bark of a tree. These

hatch into grubs, which bore their way into the trunk
or branch and feed upon its substance. The holes let
in moisture and destructive fungi which gradually
bring about the death of the tree by slowly but surely
sapping its life, like a cancer in the human body. The
rotting eventually becomes so extreme that the tree
dies, slain indirectly by the grub of a beetle.

Other kinds of grubs attack and feed on the soft
inner bark and sap. Caterpillars swarm over the
entire tree and denude it of leaves. The leaves are
the breathing organs of trees ; they are its lungs by
means of which the tree inhales carbonic acid gas and

85

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

exhales oxygen. The majority of trees die if deprived
of all their leaves. I have seen patches of forest
blasted and dry as though stricken by a fierce wave
of heat. I watched an army of caterpillars kill a
noble old oak tree in Pietermaritzburg. They began
at the top of the tree and, eating many times their own
weight of leaves each day, they, in the course of two
weeks, stripped it absolutely bare of foliage. Then,
descending to the ground in the night, they migrated
to another tree and blasted it also. A few birds made
daily assaults on this mighty host, but alas ! they
were but the attenuated remnant of a once strong
army of defence. The human folk in their blindness
had succeeded in almost exterminating their allies.

Battalions of gall-flies attack the twigs and form
galls upon them. Weevils bore into the pith and
lay eggs which hatch into grubs. The cicada, or
" Christmas bee," inflicts wounds in trees, often of a
serious nature. Aphides, scale insects, and plant lice
weaken the tree by sucking its juices, which are to it
what blood is to us. The grubs of great numbers of
species of moths feed upon the buds and flowers.
Preyed upon by such hosts of enemies, the tree grows
increasingly weak and becomes a prey to parasitic
plant growths such as fungi ; and the terrible white
ant or termite attacks both roots and trunk of the
harassed and sickly giant.

Such are the enemies which prey upon forest
trees ; enemies which, if not kept sternly in check,
would multiply in an incredibly short while and
sweep the forests out of existence. And without

86

Eggs of a moth on a leaf.
Small birds diligently search the foliage of trees, shrubs and the
farmers' crops for the eggs of insects on which they greedily feed. Photo
by Y K. Roots, in the National Geographic Magazine of America.)

87

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

forests all higher forms of life in the world would
perish.

Buckland puts it very aptly : " But for the trees,
the insects would perish ; and but for the insects,
the birds would perish ; and but for the birds, the
trees would perish."

Nature fortunately has provided an efficient army
to keep the enemies of the forest trees in check.
They breed too rapidly, and they are too clever
in hiding and otherwise escaping notice for birds
ever to absolutely exterminate them. But so long
as man does not unreasonably persecute the birds,
they will succeed in keeping the enemy in check
so that the damage inflicted may be easily made
good. Purely insectivorous birds will never increase
too largely in numbers except for a brief space, for an
excess of insect-eating birds means a scarcity of food,
and the less physically fit die off, and so Nature adjusts
the balance.

What of the many fruit-eating birds in the forests ?
Do they cause damage ? By no means. They are
one of Nature's tree and shrub planters. Eating the
berries and fruit, they sow the seed far and wide.
At Port Elizabeth the sand dunes at one time threatened
to overwhelm the southern portion of the city. Port
Jackson wattles {Acacia cyclopea) were planted over the
dunes. What was formerly a vast shifting waste of
sea sand is now covered with a dense forest of these
trees. The wattled starling, commonly known as
the locust bird or klein springhaan vogel {Creatophora
carunculatus), is very fond of the red, fleshy appendage

88

BIRDS AND FORESTS

of the hard, black seed of this wattle tree. In eating
it the bird usually swallows the seed as well, and this
passes unchanged through its intestines, and is voided.
These starlings spread themselves in flocks over the
veld and hill-sides in search of grasshoppers, leaf and
root destroying insects, with the result that the acacia
trees are springing into existence in the most unexpected
places. If, for instance, the trees were allowed to grow
unchecked for a few centuries a mighty forest would
be the result. The local forester was puzzled to
account for the presence of wattles which sprang up
and flourished along the wire fences. The wattled
starlings perch in thousands on these fences and void
the seeds. Wherever these starlings are in the habit
of congregating, masses of trees soon come into
existence.

A tree establishes itself perhaps owing to a seed
which has passed through or been cast up from the
crop of some fruit-eating bird. It grows to maturity,
sheds its seeds, and its children grow up around it.
Birds feed upon the berries or fruit, and drop the
seed wider afield. Scores of isolated clumps of trees
come into being. The sowing of the seed by birds,
wind, and animals proceeds, and a great forest is the
ultimate result.

Our feathered guardians of the forest perform their
duties well and faithfully. The woodpecker is Nature's
policeman of the tree trunks and branches. Insects
attack a tree and enter it ; fungi follow, and decay
sets in. The woodpecker attacks the dead or dying
wood and clears it out as neatly as a surgeon removes a

89

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

dangerous tumour or cancer, and the tree heals up the
wounds and the danger is overcome. Woodpeckers
rarely attack sound wood. When making a home in a
tree trunk to rear a family, the bird usually attacks a
decayed spot and indirectly does the tree a valuable
service by removing the fungoid growth and dead

wood, which gives the
cells of the tree an op-
portunity to form a shield
of woody tissue against
further attacks by fungi.
The woodpecker
possesses feet and claws
specially adapted for
climbing up, down, and
round about the tree
trunks and branches.
The stiff tail acts as a
support when the bird is
at work pecking out
decayed wood, or remov-
ing dead bark in search
of insects, their eggs, and grubs. Insects have a
terrible time when these feathered policemen of the
woods are plentiful. Those insects which bore into
and breed in timber are practically immune from the
attacks of other kinds of birds, and but for the
onslaughts of the woodpeckers the wood-boring
insects, which eat twice their own weight of wood
each day, would multiply and ruin the forests and
invade our orchards and gardens.

90

The Woodpecker eats the worm
in the wood.

BIRDS AND FORESTS

These birds know their business, and they perform
it to perfection. Every inch of the bark is inspected
for traces of the presence of insects. A slight groove,
a trace of gnawed wood, a tiny hole in the bark, afford
clues which are energetically followed up. Meanwhile

The tip of a Woodpecker's tongue.

The tongue of the Woodpecker is round and worm-like. It curves round the
base of the skull and over the top. It can be extended for some distance
from the end of the bill. It is covered with a sticky mucus, to which
insects adhere. Its tip is pointed and barbed. This wonderful tongue
is used for picking insects from leaves, twigs, and bark. Also for
penetrating the long winding tunnels of wood-boring larvae. The tip of
the tongue is driven into the body of the grub, and the barbs prevent the
victim from escaping.

the bird is continually tapping the tree with its beak,
and so acutely attuned is its sense of hearing that it
knows instantly whether the wood is sound or in a
condition of decay. If the latter, it rips off the bark,
pecks away the decayed wood, and greedily swallows
the borer grubs which have caused the mischief. 1 he
cause being removed, the tree recovers.

91

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

In the Tzitzikama and Knysna forests the grub
of a longicorn beetle does considerable mischief.
The grubs bore into the hardest wood and utterly
ruin it for timber purposes. These large borer
grubs feed upon the wood until mature. When adult
the grub bores its way to the surface and changes
into a chrysalis, leaving a veneer of bark between
its head and the outer world. After a period it emerges
as a large winged beetle. The woodpecker is an adept
at locating these chrysalides and, tearing off the pro-
tecting bark, they are triumphantly drawn out and
swallowed by the bird or fed to her brood.

For twenty years I made a special study of birds in
their native haunts, mostly in Natal. I lived with them
in the fields, valleys, forests, and on the mountain tops,
spending days and weeks at a time in the wilds, my
sole companions being a pony, dog, and note-book.
The stomachs of the different species of South African
woodpeckers were examined at various times, and
noted. The contents averaged about 70 per cent,
beetles and their larvae. The great majority of these
were wood borers ; others were destroyers of roots,
leaves, buds, berries, and fruits. An average of
30 per cent, consisted of white ants (termites),
caterpillars, moths, and various species of leaf-
destroying insects. Never a trace of seed, berry, or
fruit did I ever discover in the stomach of a
woodpecker.

Sound wood has no attraction for a woodpecker,
for there are no insects there. The bird is out for food
and not to expend its strength in useless labour. It

92

Life-history of a Moth {Nudaurelia isis) which is a pest of apricot,
plum, and plane trees.

1 . Cluster of Eggs on a twig.

2. Larva or Caterpillar.

3. Chrysalis or Pupa.

4. Adult, or Imago Insect, which emerges from the chrysalis.
This is typical of the life history of all moths and butterflies, viz.

egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, moth, or butterfly.

93

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

pecks the rotten wood or removes pieces of dead bark
to catch and devour the enemies of the trees ; it, in
fact, attacks them in their strongholds.

Woodpeckers, with the exception of the three
species of American sapsuckers, are eminently beneficial
to forestry, and deserve every possible encouragement

and protection, therefore
let no man raise his hand
against a woodpecker. It
is a bird which works in
the interest of man all its
waking hours, and asks no
payment, not even a seed
or a fruit. Yes, it is a
slave indeed to man, but
a willing slave, glad and
happy to serve him. Man
rewards it by shooting it
down. His boys are
allowed to make collections
of its eggs, and the Kafir
umfaans roast the nestlings
and eat them.

Man in his folly and
ignorance has, in the past, imagined he could dispense
with the services of the bird. Every time he made
the experiment he failed miserably. With his costly
pumps, his sprays, poison baits, and nets, the extent
of his achievements are the saving of a limited
number of trees.

Man values lightly that which he gets for nothing

94

The Woodpecker rears her
children in a hole in a
rotten tree.

BIRDS AND FORESTS

— it was ever so. The forest birds, which keep the
ravening hordes of insects in check in order that he
and his kind might multiply and overspread the
earth, are often mercilessly murdered for the despicable
and savage purpose of adorning a woman's hat. Aye !
woman's vanity in this respect has cost the peoples
of the world countless millions of money, and retarded
the expansion of the human race and the opening up
of new lands to an alarming degree. Yet our educa-
tionists stand aloof when there is such a crying need
for bringing enlightenment to the school children on
this vastly important matter. There is no time, they
say, for extra subjects to be taught. Children are
already weighted down sufficiently with lessons. Yes,
they leave school freighted with much so-called
knowledge which is of little or no value to the vast
majority of them in their struggle for existence. Poor,
indeed, is their equipment for the grim struggle for
existence which is before them. We simply blunder
along — muddle through anyhow. Inquire of librarians
of public libraries and they, one and all, will inform you
that for one book of fact taken out by subscribers, five
hundred books of fiction are read. This apathy and
distaste for knowledge shown by the average adult is
a clinching reason why knowledge of a practical kind
should be taught to school children.

The pond in which a frog dwells is the whole world
to him, and so it is with the majority of human folk.
They are shut up in a prison of their own making —
the doors are unbarred, but they seek not to open
them. Seek and ye shall find.

95

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

" A primrose by a river's brim,
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more."

A wild bird's feather in a woman's hat is an
ornament to her and those who behold it, and nothing
more. To the ornithologist it is something more.

•He, in vision, sees a
lovely pair of in-
nocent birds chirping,
singing, and frolick-
ing in an excess of
happiness while they
busily build their
home. He sees the
mother bird brood-
ing lovingly over her
cherished eggs, while
her mate sits on a twig
near by and makes
her vigil a joy indeed
with his sweet song
and loving presence.
Ever and anon he
takes his turn on the
eggs, so that she may go forth for exercise and search
the forest for insects to satisfy her hunger. Then the
young birdies come, and the joy of that loving couple
knows no bounds. From dawn to dewy eve they scour
the forest and fields for insects to satisfy the voracious
appetites of their children. While engaged in this
loving service to his children the father falls, riddled

96

If you want birds in your neighbourhood,
encourage them to breed by providing
Nesting Boxes.

BIRDS AND FORESTS

with shot or a lead pellet in his heart, murdered for
no worthier purpose than that his plumage may put
a few pence into some human brute's pocket, and
ultimately adorn a woman's hat.

What of the widowed mate and the orphan
children ? She, as a general rule, dies of a broken
heart, and the babies perish miserably of starvation
and cold.

Aye ! truly through lack of the right kind of
knowledge we do the most diabolically cruel things.
Ignorance and cruelty go hand in hand surely. People,
as a general rule, are not by nature cruel — it is ignor-
ance, superstition, and erroneous beliefs which make
them so.

In 1905 the larch plantations on estates surround-
ing Bassenthwaite Lake were seriously affected by the
pest known as the large larch saw-fly. On one estate
alone several thousand trees were destroyed. In 1907
a severe outbreak of the disease was observed on the
Thirlmere plantation of the Manchester Corporation.
It was pointed out that various species of birds destroy
this pest, and accordingly 60 nesting boxes were hung
in the trees as an experiment. Another 114 boxes
were added in the following year, and 105 more in
1909. The numbers of tits, robins, and starlings
increased considerably, and their young were diligently
fed on the larvae of the saw-fly and long-horned beetle.
The lower slopes of Helvellyn and the hill-sides on
the opposite side of the lake, which a few years before
were bleak and barren, were soon covered with young
forest trees which resounded with the songs of birds.
vol. 1. 97 7

The Bagworm is the caterpillar of a moth. It lives in a silken bag
covered with lengths of straw sticks and even pebbles. The Bag-
worm does immense damage in wattle plantations, and devours
many other forms of vegetation. It has become a serious menace
to the progress of South Africa.

Birds are the chief enemies of this pest. They prey on it in the
young stage ; certain species of birds draw out the caterpillar from its
bair, while others feed on the moth.

98

BIRDS AND FORESTS

Those who are practically connected with the busi-
ness of forestry are keenly aware of the great good
to arboriculture done by the woodpeckers. As the
rooks, partridges, and starlings are the recognised
guardians of pasturage and cattle lands, so woodpeckers
are the custodians and caretakers of forest growth.

If landowners, more particularly owners of woods,
only knew and considered the great value of wood-
peckers and their allies in continually cleansing their
trees and freeing them from all vermin, they would not
be satisfied until they had the feathered friends of
their trees adequately protected, as is now being
done in the United States. Wood, free from insects,
is practically indestructible.

Birds are the most powerful insect destroyers we
have. In the best forests, and particularly those which
have been specially planted, there is very little natural
provision for the nesting of birds. This should be
provided in the shape of nesting boxes of kinds suited
to the needs of the species of birds which prey on tree-
destroying pests. Unless this is done, plantations
will continue to be ravaged owing to the limited number
of birds which will be able to make their homes there.
If suitable numbers of nesting boxes are affixed high
up on the trees in various parts of the plantation, the
birds will very soon find them out and utilise them.

These measures have been employed with un-
qualified success in controlling the destructiveness of
insects in woods in certain parts of Europe and
America. The Hainich Wood, for instance, south of
Eisenach, in Germany, which is several miles in extent,

99

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

was stripped absolutely bare by the caterpillars of a
small moth (Tortix viridand) in the spring of 1905.
The neighbouring wood belonging to Baron von
Berlepsch was untouched. In this wood some years
previously over 2,000 nesting boxes had been affixed
to the trees. Dr Gordon Hewitt, D.Sc, in writing
on the subject, says : " It stood out among the
remaining woods like a green oasis."

BIRDS AND HEALTH

Birds are a strong factor in checking the onslaughts
of the disease microbe army. We now know that
the great majority of diseases which attack man and
beast are carried by insects. A blood-sucking fly
inoculates man with the parasites which cause sleeping
sickness. Other blood-sucking flies carry the germs
of a number of deadly diseases to stock animals, and
inoculate them direct by puncturing the skin with a
sharp lancet. The common house fly is one of the
foulest of feeders, and gets smothered with the bacteria
of various diseases, and also voids them alive from its
body. These germs it sows in our households and
amongst our domestic animals. The house fly is now
regarded as the chief cause of the spread of diseases
in human communities and to the various members of
households.

The larva of a gad or warble fly produces
100

BIRDS AND HEALTH

tumours under the skin, and in the car and nostril
cavities of animals.

Mosquitoes inoculate man with a parasite which
causes malarial and yellow fevers. We strongly
suspect it of being one of the agents in the spread of
other diseases, both animal and human.

Ticks are the transports which carry a variety of

Donkey dying of ngana, or tse-tse fly disease. Blood-sucking
flies are the cause of sleeping sickness in man and ngana
in animals. They effectively check the spread of the
human race in Africa. Ground-feeding hints eat the
pupae, and fly-catchers and swallows snap up the flies.

terrible diseases to household pets and stock animals.
Fresh water snails are the hosts of the liver, fluke,
and bilharzia parasite.

A host of species and kinds of birds unknown to
the majority of people are waging a relentless warfare
on these disease-carrying insects. The maggots and
chrysalides are devoured in countless numbers by water
fowl, guinea-fowls, partridges, pheasants, quails, larks,
plovers, crakes, rails, and dozens of other kinds of
birds. The wagtails, fly-catchers, swallows, swifts,
thrushes, warblers, sunbirds, bee-eaters, drongos, and

IOI

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

other birds wage war on mature blood-sucking blow
and common house flies.

White eyes, warblers, wrens, sun birds, and many
other species hunt the mosquitoes from their lurking-

Diagram of the Digestive Organs of the House Fly.

1 . The Proboscis or Sucker by which food is drawn up.

2. The Tube through which food passes to the crop.

3. Crop or Bag in which the food is stored. The rly vomits the food,

a drop at a time, on whatever it may be sitting on. It is then
sucked up a second time and passes into the real stomach, where
it is digested.

4. The Stomach. 5. Intestines. 6. The Vent.

Disease microbes pass through the fly's digestive tract and issue forth alive.
They cling to the fly's feet and body. Flies, in consequence, are
spreaders of diseases. Birds are their enemies.

places amidst the foliage, and feed upon them. The
night jar, miscalled a night hawk, attacks them on the
wing by night. This bird has a capacious stomach
and extremely rapid digestion, and a single bird can
account for at least a thousand mosquitoes in a night.
Who has not seen the swallows, martins, and swifts
at sundown skimming low over the ground until night

102

BIRDS AND HEALTH

sets in ? Arc they at play ? By no means. The)
are doing battle for us against the hosts of mosquitoes
and other night-flying insects which are emerging
from their hiding-places.

What of the tick — the scourge and terror of the
stock farmer and dairyman ? Here, again, the birds
render sterling service. The ox - peckers or tick
birds are specially evolved for the purpose of removing
ticks from large animals, for the nature of their toes

Tse-tse fly disease is fatal to dogs and all stock animals.
Guinea-fowls, partridges, pheasants, and thrushes
scratch up the pupce of the flies and eat them.

enables them to climb all over their host — down and
up its legs, neck, and round its abdomen. Every part
of the hide is inspected.

While the animals are lying at rest in the fields,
the white egret, with dignified stride, walks round
the beast and pecks off the blood-gorged blue female
ticks which would, if left alive, have laid thousands of

eggs-

The starlings, larks, plovers, crakes, wagtails, and

other birds search the ground in the close vicinity
for any gorged female ticks which have left their host
and are seeking a suitable spot in which to lay their
eggs.

103

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Out in the fields the partridge, plover, lark, and
other ground birds peck the ticks from the grass
stems.

Thus by waging incessant war on the insects which
carry disease microbes to man and beast, the bird is
rendering a service which cannot be overestimated.
Should a few of them, when driven by hunger, take a
little grain, is it robbery ? Have we the moral right
to brand them as impudent thieves, and cry aloud for
their extermination ? If it were not for the services
of the bird in catching and destroying disease-producing
insects, man would make no headway. It is question-
able whether he could even manage to exist, except in
a miserable way and in very limited numbers.

The United States Government, on the accession
of Mr Wilson as President, issued an order forbidding,
under heavy penalties, the destruction of any wild
bird in the Panama Canal zone. This was real
Solomonic wisdom, and it makes one wish other
governmental bodies were as wide awake in their
efforts to reduce the ravages of diseases.

Bilharzia is a terrible scourge of the human race
in Africa, Southern Asia, and even South America.
It is caused by a circaria worm of microscopic size
which lives in fresh water streams, ponds, and marshes.
It enters the body usually when bathing, through
the human skin and the mucous membranes of the
mouth and throat, and produces an incurable disease.
It has been ascertained that snails and other fresh water
molluscs, crustaceans, and the water-dwelling larvae
of various winged insects act as intermediary hosts

104

BIRDS AND HEALTH

No. 1. — A bird shelter with open front and sides to hang on wall.

No. 2.— A bird shelter and feeding box. Swings with the wind.
Glass at back. For garden or balcony.

No. 3. — Open feeding tray. A nesting box can be fixed to the
top. For garden or balcony.

I05

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

for this clrcaria worm. Should the eggs enter the
water from the urine or faeces of an infected person
or animal, they quickly hatch, and the larvae attack
and enter the bodies of these hosts. Here they
complete their cycle of development, and when mature
leave their lowly host and emerge into the water.
Unless able to enter the body of a human being or
some other warm-blooded animal, they perish in about
thirty-seven hours. So here, once again, we have a
valuable ally in the bird. To reduce or eradicate the
disease, the intermediary hosts of the worm must be
attacked and destroyed. Large numbers of species
of birds feed greedily upon fresh water molluscs and
other forms of aquatic life. Others devour the winged
insects which pass the larval period of their lives in
water. In our struggle against this terrible scourge
which is prematurely killing off or making physical
wrecks of thousands of people, the water-frequenting
birds are our greatest allies.

The microscope reveals the alarming fact that the
germs of that terrible disease, sleeping sickness, breed
in practically all the larger wild animals. They are
immune to sleeping sickness ; but a blood-sucking
fly carries the germs from these to both natives and
Europeans. The disease has swept off the human
populations of entire districts, and it is threatening
to make tropical Africa unfit for human habitation.
It may be necessary to kill the wild animals, but they
are not really guilty. True, they unconsciously carry
the germs in their blood, but the arch-criminals are
the women who wear the plumes of wild birds in their

106

BTRDS AND TTEATTTI

hats, and the men who kill grame birds. The bird

gai

Is

feed on the larvae of the blood-sucking fly, and when
they are persecuted and killed, the fly multiplies and
spreads sleeping sickness far and wide. A terrible
price surely to pay for vanity, so-called sport, and the
pleasure of feasting on the bodies of our feathered
allies.

When a man is murdered in our midst, we
demand that the murderer be punished. Yet we are
indirectly killing thousands of people by our selfish-
ness and indifference. Men and domestic animals are
dying annually in multitudes from preventable diseases,
and we heed not. Men of science are poorly paid,
discouraged, and a deaf ear is often turned to their
grave warnings and expert advice, except when the
knowledge can be utilised for selfish individual financial
gain.

" And so the dreadful massacre began ;

O'er fields and orchards, and o'er woodland crests
The ceaseless fusillade of terror ran ;

Dead fell the birds, with bloodstains on their breasts,
Or wounded, crept away from sight of man,

While the young died of famine in their nests :
A slaughter to be told in groans, not words,
The very St Bartholomew of birds ! "

Longfellow.

107

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

BIRDS AND WEEDS

" By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt earn thy
daily bread."

This is as it should be, for Nature has no use for
those who neither work with their brain nor their hands.
The ignorant boor works like an ox to produce a small
return. The intelligent man avails himself of all
manner of things to lighten his labours, and to enable
him to get the largest possible return for his energy.

The time, energy, and money dissipated in warring
against weeds are vast. Out in the wilds, weeds serve
good and useful purposes, but in cultivated lands they
are a pest ; and, should we relax our onslaughts, they
overspread our lands and crowd out the crops. To
prevent the choking to death of the produce of our
fields, we are obliged to constantly attack the weeds
with harrows, hoes, sickles, and ploughs. The labour
is never-ending, for the land is full of weed seeds
which retain their vitality for years. It is impossible
completely to free cultivated lands from weeds even
by constantly destroying them before they mature their
seed.

Weeds have evolved a protection against such a
contingency. Every plant struggles as purposefully
and as intelligently to safeguard its species against
extinction as does any form of animal life, including
man.

Many kinds of weeds provide their seeds with
various ingenious contrivances by which they are

108

OlK

of Nature's Bird
p ho I id us typus).
Snake Park.

enemies— the Boomslang or Tree Snake (Dts-
Photo from live specimens in the Port Elizabeth

109

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

made so buoyant that even a gentle breeze will waft
the seeds away through the air for miles. Others are
provided with hooks for catching hold of the hair
and wool of animals, and so on.

The farmer by unremitting labour may succeed
in keeping his lands comparatively free from weeds,
but so long as they are allowed to mature and shed
their seed along the fringes of his fields and in his
neighbourhood, he will have his lands resown with
them.

It would not pay him to attempt to systematically
destroy all the weeds on a large farm. Should he try,
he and his employees would have little or no time to
do anything else.

Nature, however, has not unduly favoured the
weed in its struggle for existence. A host of enemies
attack it. These are the seed-eating birds. From
afar they gather and feed upon the seed when it is
reaching maturity. As a general rule, a seed-eating
bird makes two good meals a day if undisturbed.
Small birds, such as vinks, will eat upwards of an
ounce of weed seeds a day. When the seed is ripening
it is eaten direct from the weed, and at other times it
is sought for upon the ground. Even the much perse-
cuted dove destroys immense quantities of weed seeds.
It is very partial to the seeds of the weed commonly
known as mistbreedie (Amaranthus paniculatus).

I came upon a young farmer one day lying in a pit.
He informed me he was shooting off those pests, the
vinks (weaver birds). He had already shot thirty
or forty on a portion of a harrowed field which had

1 10

BIRDS AND WEEDS

already been planted with mealies. I asked permission
to open the crops of those he had slain. Every crop
contained a variety of weed seeds and larvae of various
insects.

The average quantity of weed seeds consumed by
ordinary birds such as weavers, widow birds, and bishop
birds, all of which are popularly termed " vinks,"
amount to about 25 lbs. per bird every year. Doves
will eat their own weight of weed seeds every day if
the seeds are sufficiently abundant.

The majority of game birds devour immense
quantities of weed and water grass seeds, as well as
mature bulbs which rob the soil of moisture and
plant food, and often seriously reduce the stock-
feeding value of land. I have found as many as
4 ounces of weed seeds in the crop of a partridge.
The average crop content of one of these birds at
midday is 2^ ounces of seeds of weeds, cut-worms,
beetles, grasshoppers, and other insects. Guinea-
fowls perform an immense service in eating weed seeds,
locusts, locust eggs, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and
larvae which live underground, and which, in conse-
quence, escape the attentions of the bulk of other
species of birds. The guinea-fowl, however, does
considerable mischief on newly-sown lands, for it is
able to eat j, lb. of grain at a feed. Out in the wilds,
and especially in game preserves, it renders great
service in preying upon the larvae of blood-sucking
and other flies, gorged female ticks, etc., and is
therefore a factor in checking animal plagues.

Game birds are of great economic value in our
1 1 1

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

war against those two hostile armies — the weeds and
insects.

These species of birds are of far greater value to a
farmer alive and out on his lands, than in the pot.

Of all the game birds the quail is the best weed
destroyer. The quail is ranked in the first class among
birds which are useful to man. . Some authorities con-
sider it is more useful than any other bird. During
the spring and summer months it wages a terrible
war on insects and their larvae. With unerring
instinct it seeks out their hiding places, and with
beak and claws exposes them to view. Morning
and evening it is busy hunting these pests in the
cultivated fields and pasturage.

Quails feed greedily on insects so long as they are
plentiful, and only resort to a diet of grass and weed
seeds when insects are scarce. The quail works for
the farmer right royally against the insect hordes,
from the time the crops are sown in the spring until
they are reaped in the autumn. When the fertile
male and female termites (white ants) fall to the
ground and meet to found a new colony the quail
seeks them out and devours them.

As winter approaches insects become increasingly
scarce, and the quail then sustains itself almost and
often entirely on the seeds of weeds. The seeds of
several species of the most rapidly growing and
obnoxious weeds are eaten greedily by the quail.
This bird breeds during the spring and summer time,
and lays from six to a dozen eggs. The chicks are
active from birth, like those of the domestic fowl,

112

BIRDS AND WEEDS

and the number of insects, larvae, and eggs they destroy
in a season is uncountable. Many of the insects preyed
upon are of the kinds which pass the larval stage of
their lives underground. These grubs do immense
damage by eating the roots of cultivated crops, grasses,
seedling trees, and shrubs. The majority of species
of birds search for insects on the ground, on vegeta-
tion, and in the air. The quail takes them both from
above ground and underground, and thus renders man
a double service. The report of the United States
Biological Survey says : —

" It is reasonable to suppose that in the States of
Virginia and North Carolina from ist September to
30th April there were four quails to every square
mile of land. The crop of each bird holds half an
ounce of seed, and is filled twice a day. Since at each
of these two daily meals harmful weed seeds con-
stitute at least half the contents of the crop, half an
ounce daily is consumed by each bird. On this basis
the total consumption of harmful weed seeds by quails
from September to April in Virginia and North
Carolina amounts to 1,341 tons."

As destructive insects form about one-third of the
bird's food from June to August, quails consume 341
tons of these pests in these States within those two
months.

Few, if any, birds other than the quail will eat
that terrible pest, the potato bug or Colorado beetle.
The quail, however, has a special liking for it and eats
it greedily, and will abandon all other food so long as
plenty of these beetles are obtainable. If for no
vol. t. 113 8

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

other reason than this the quail should be held
sacred.

The fact that the dreaded scourge, the cotton ball
weevil, has not annihilated the cotton crops of America
and brought red ruin to tens of thousands of people,
is largely due to the services rendered by the quail
in keeping these insects in check.

The countryside is diligently searched by the parent birds for
Caterpillars to satisfy the voracious appetites of their
children. This sketch shows the mother bird in the act
of placing a Caterpillar in its youngster's throat.

Here we have a bird which renders man four
great services : —

i. It safeguards the vast cotton plantations of
the world.

2. It polices the potato crops on which the
human race largely depends for food.

3. It wages war on the hordes of insects that
attack the crops and pasturage.

4. It helps very largely in keeping noxious weeds
in check.

Unlike many other birds, it takes no wages in
114

1. Secretary Bird in the act of killing a snake. When the snake is

large and venomous, such as a Cobra, or Puff Adder, the bird
employs various tactics.

2. Nest of a Black Crow on the top of a telegraph pole. There is a single

wire line between Springfontein and Clanwilliam, and a special
man is employed to ride alongside the line to clear the poles of
crow's nests which cause short circuiting. (Photo by Sir Frederick
Smith.)

"5

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

grain or fruit. It works in the interests of man all
the time without payment.

Every live quail on a man's land is a valuable asset.
Yet, because the little creature has a plump, juicy
body, it is mercilessly hunted with dogs and shot down.

When will economic Natural History be taught
to our children ? If other subjects bar the way,
then away with some of them and make place for
the knowledge every boy and girl should possess.
The quail stands in the front rank of birds which
should be protected by law. If I were asked to choose
a dozen species of birds which I considered served
man best, the quail and his first cousin the hemipode
or button quail would be two of them.

There are many ways of increasing the productive-
ness of the land and bringing a greater measure of
prosperity to a country, but there is no greater than
the conservation of bird life.

I examined the crop of a rook (black crow) which
was shot at sundown on a stock farm. There were
156 wireworms, 32 blue female ticks, and the larvae
of other pests in its crop.

I have stayed at many stock farms at times, and
the owners were unanimous that the rook rendered
valuable services. They assert it picks up the gorged
female ticks which drop from the cattle preparatory
to crawling into suitable cover to deposit from 2,000
to 18,000 eggs ; it digs up the larvae of beetles which
prey on the roots of pasture, plants, and grasses ; and
it devours locusts, grasshoppers, and a variety of other
pests which eat the vegetation.

116

BIRDS AS SCAVENGERS

The South African rook is usually seen in pairs,
or a family consisting of the parents and the previous
season's brood, and each pair have a certain area over
which they rule, and they remain in possession unless
driven out by another pair of birds. Rooks, however,
often assemble on cornfields in numbers and eat a
portion of the newly planted or sprouting corn, but it
is very doubtful if the quantity of corn they eat counter-
balances the destructive insects they devour during
the rest of the year. It would be far more profitable
for the farmer to employ native boys to patrol his fields
during this short period than to poison the rooks.

BIRDS AS SCAVENGERS

Vultures are the feathered scavengers of Nature.
Their mission in life is to eat up the dead bodies of
animals which, if allowed to rot away, would poison
the atmosphere and sow disease microbes broadcast.
The diseased flesh, when swallowed by a vulture, is
rapidly digested, and all the harmful bacteria are
destroyed by its gastric juices. In the past, before the
advent of man into South Africa, the vulture {Aas Vogel)
and the white - necked raven (Ring-hals) rendered
sterling service in keeping disease epidemics in check.
When a plague broke out in a herd of antelopes, for
instance, the vultures and ravens gathered in thousands,
ate up the victims, and left only the bones and splashes

117

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of blood which the bright South African sun rapidly
sterilised. In this way epidemics of disease were
checked, and the animals of the country saved from
utter destruction.

During the many terrible epidemics of disease
which have swept the stock farmers' flocks and herds,
the vultures and ravens rendered valuable services in
devouring the carcasses with which the veld and hill-
sides were strewn. That terrible scourge of the stock
farmer, gal-lamziekte, has been shown to be due to
cattle eating bones with dry, rotten flesh on them,
and also to bones of animals whose bodies have decayed.
By eating the flesh and picking the bones clean these
birds reduce the prevalence of this disease.

Vultures and ravens still do good and useful
service, especially in the native territories and north-
wards right through Africa.

European farmers, however, are rapidly learning
how to cope with stock diseases chiefly through the
medium of the various farmers' journals, and instead
of leaving an animal to rot on the veld and con-
taminate the grass, it is deeply buried. The Govern-
ment Veterinary Department is now so efficient that
epidemics have little chance of sweeping through the
entire country as they used to do in " the good old
days," when there was no concerted action taken, and
little or nothing was known by farmers about stock
diseases and their prevention.

The vulture, owing to the ever-increasing scarcity of
carrion, is being forced by hunger to attack lambs and
sheep. It is a cowardly bird, and fears an encounter

118

H9

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

even with a sheep under normal conditions ; but when
the ewe is in the act of lambing, these birds sometimes
attack and destroy both it and the lamb. Many stock
farmers, therefore, shoot it at sight or poison it. It
is easy, however, to provide a shepherd when the
ewes are lambing. The majority of farmers have
shepherds for their flocks at all times.

The necessity for the scavenging services of the
vulture and carrion crow grows less every year. With
the advance of science and education, we in the more
settled parts could afford to dispense with the vulture.

When carrion is plentiful the vulture will, however,
rarely attack a living animal, even when quite helpless.
I have many a time seen them in their hundreds
watching for days a dying ox, sitting in rows like a
regiment of soldiers waiting for the animal to die.

I once saw fifteen vultures watch a helpless dying
sheep for two days, but none of them approached close
to the animal until it died. They then rushed in and
squabbled furiously over the carcass.

The aas vogels usually assemble and sit like a
regiment of soldiers a short distance from a carcass,
if it be a large one like that of an ox or horse, waiting
until decomposition is well advanced, for two reasons :
(i) They prefer decayed to fresh meat ; (2) the hide
is more easily broken by their beaks, and the meat can
be torn off with little effort. Sometimes, when the
vulture is not too heavily laden with food, it flies off,
and being consumed with thirst, alights, drinks too
greedily, and often vomits a portion of the putrid meat,
seething with disease microbes, into the water which

120

BIRDS AS SCAVENGERS

stock animals may subsequently drink. It is a much
safer plan to bury the carcass of an animal which has
died of disease than to let vultures intern it, but the
former cannot always be done, for obvious reasons.

In some parts of India the human dead are placed
on top of flat towers, and in a very short space of
time the vultures pick the bones clean. In Northern
Africa and Arabia the people of the villages are
exceedingly insanitary in their habits, and if it were
not for the sanitary services rendered by the vultures
and the hyaenas, pestilence would decimate the people.

The gull is one of Nature's finest feathered
scavengers. The vulture and the raven are the
sanitarians of the hills and veld, and the gull does a
like service along the sea coasts.

The gull is a surface feeder, and its mission in life
is to eat up dead animal life floating on the sea or cast
up by the tide. It occasionally destroys fish, but the
harm it does the fishing industry amounts to nothing
in proportion to the colossal services it renders as a
scavenger. Now and then when a shoal of small
fishes are being hunted by carnivorous fish and in
their terror come to the surface or into the shallows,
the gulls will snap up a few. At other times the
cormorants assemble in large numbers, and, forming
themselves in crescent formation, deliberately drive a
shoal of small fishes into the shallows. Gulls on these
occasions hover overhead and snatch up some of the
fish, but the number they secure in this way is trifling.
Fishermen's stories about the gull being a great
devourer of live fish are not true. They have a strong

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

dislike to picking up a fish alive even when it is lying
helpless on the shore.

During the Government experimental nettings
which I carried out in the Zwartkops tidal river
during 191 5-1 6, the gulls hovered round in large
numbers and ate up any dead fish which were left
on the banks. Sometimes a gull would seize a small
fish, and when in mid-air, if the victim showed signs of
life, the gull instantly dropped it. On other occasions
I have seen mullet leap on to the shore when pursued
by a large fish, and watched the gulls swoop down and
stand a few yards away and not attempt to seize the
fish until its struggles had ceased.

At Algoa Bay the black-backed gulls {Larus
dominicanus) do magnificent scavenging work by
eating up all the fish offal cast upon the sand and
in the water by fishermen.

Some years ago the beach to the south of Port
Elizabeth was thickly strewn with dead fish, and the
gulls gathered from afar and ate them up. The
denizens of the ocean are subject to attacks of epidemics
of diseases, as are their more evolved kindred of terra
firma. Gulls, by eating the bodies of those that die
of disease, are largely instrumental in keeping fish
diseases in check. Gulls are therefore guardians of
the health of the ocean's population, as well as acting as
scavengers of the seashores and dirty, insanitary villages
adjacent to the seashore. When pressed for food,
gulls penetrate inland for miles in search of grass-
hoppers, locusts, and caterpillars.

Black-backed gulls, which I kept in captivity for
122

BIRDS AS SCAVENGERS

observation purposes, were promiscuous feeders ; they
devoured anything from caterpillars to offal, carrion, or
bread. Gulls at low tide destroy numbers of small
marine Crustacea and other creatures which are
enemies to the eggs and fry of fishes.

Notwithstanding anything fishermen may say to
the contrary, the gull is a bird which deserves every
possible consideration by us.

But in spite of the immense services rendered us
by the gull, these birds are allowed to be slain in
hundreds of thousands in various parts of the world
to supply the needs of the millinery trade. For
instance, on a certain island in the Pacific Ocean
200,000 gulls were murdered for the sake of their
snowy white breast feathers. These gulls, at the time,
were breeding, but the fiends who butchered them
were in no way deterred in the work of slaughter by
qualms of conscience for being the direct cause of
hosts of nestling birds dying of starvation. Such is
an instance of the terrible cruelties inflicted on our
feathered friends and allies — all to gratify the vanity
of woman. The plumage of a wild bird in a woman's
hat has been aptly styled " the badge of cruelty," and
it should certainly be so regarded by all humane and
sensible people.

The gull has one serious drawback from our point
of view. It steals the eggs of other sea birds and
kills the nestlings when it gets the chance. At
St Croix Island in Algoa Bay it kills considerable
numbers of penguin chicks.

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BIRDS AND GUANO

BIRDS AND GUANO

Sea birds are of great value to man as guano
producers. Guano is the excrement of the bird.
It is a powerful plant fertiliser on account of the
abundance of phosphoric acid, lime, and nitrogen it
contains.

The ancient Incas of Peru were fully alive to
the value of guano, and the birds which produced
it were rigorously protected. In 1853 the Peruvian
Government valued the guano deposits as being worth
620,000,000 dollars.

300,000 guano- producing sea birds within a
month were slain on a guano island in the Pacific
to supply the plume merchants of London so that
they might be able to keep pace with the demands
of the millinery trade. Can a more brutal and
senseless thing be imagined than this ?

Attila and his Huns surely were not more merciless
to those who fell into their power than we of to-day
are to wild birds. Nay, our actions are infinitely more
callous and brutal.

Attila with fire and sword mercilessly smote down
his enemies. We of to-day strike down our friends
and allies. And what makes it even more cowardly,
if that were possible, our victims cannot retaliate.

If you sow destruction amongst the native birds,
then you reap a harvest of insect plagues. If a law of
Nature be violated, whether wilfully or ignorantly, the
consequences are the same. There are spiritual laws

125

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

and there are physical laws, and in proportion as we
understand them and conform to them, so do our
spiritual and physical health and prosperity increase.
In the degree that we violate these laws, so do we bring
pain, suffering, and travail, both physical and spiritual,
upon ourselves.

BIRDS AND FOOD

The pioneer is usually obliged to depend largely
upon his gun for food until he is able to establish
himself and begin farming operations. . The numbers
of wild birds killed for food by these few and far
between settlers do not diminish the numbers of
birds, for the reason that he also makes war on carni-
vorous animals. These are the enemies of birds,
and their reduction brings about an increase in the
numbers of the latter.

At first the destruction of edible birds is a necessity.
Then it becomes a sport, and this is usually carried to
such extremes that many species of birds have been,
and are being, exterminated. For instance, there has
recently died in the Cincinnati Zoo the last American
wood-pigeon. The American wood-pigeon was at one
time so common that the trees in which they nested
often broke down under their weight. In 1813 it
was reckoned that there were over two thousand
million birds. It was quickly found out that the

126

BIRDS AND FOOD

birds were very good eating, and' they were slaughtered
by the hundred thousand. In 1869 one town alone
near their great breeding grounds sent off 300,000
slain birds a day for six weeks during the nesting
period, a total of 12,000,000 birds. The last
American wood-pigeon to reach the London Zoo was
in 1883, and the last wild specimen ever shot was
in September 1903. Since then not one of these
birds has ever been seen wild, though there is a
standing offer of £ 1,000 for one.

Fifty years ago the lakes, rivers, and marshes of
North America swarmed with wild ducks. Sports-
men, professional hunters, and the agents of plume
merchants attacked and slew them in millions. The
plume hunters, for instance, shot them down with
miniature cannons which were discharged from boats
disguised with foliage. Shooting thus into a flock of
a thousand ducks, large numbers were maimed and
wounded. The majority of these escaped, to die in
agony. From year to year this butchery went on
until ducks became very scarce. The people living
along the west coast of Hudson Bay eked out a
hard living by catching fish during the summer.
Throughout the long winter their chief means of
sustenance v/ere the wild ducks which were cured
and packed away in the autumn. One result of the
wholesale destruction of the wild ducks was starvation
to hundreds of families of hard-working fishermen
who, during the most favourable fishing seasons, were
only able to gain a bare livelihood.

The fashionable lady who adorned her hat with the
127

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

wing of a duck was unconscious of the fact that she
was helping to deprive a colony of poor fisher folk of
food.

The right to kill game birds for sport is a subject
which can be viewed from many aspects. The quail
we know to be a bird of very great economic value.
Every quail killed by a sportsman is a distinct loss
to agriculture. People pay taxes, and some of the
money so raised is spent in encouraging the develop-
ment of the country. Large Government Depart-
ments are maintained for the purpose of furthering the
interests of the agriculturist and stock farmer. By
protecting the quail on all Government lands we
possess ourselves of a helper which renders invaluable
service, gratis. The quail, in fact, is an honorary
worker in the interests of the farmer and the State.

A sportsman farmer will argue that he, anyway,
has a right to shoot the quails on his lands. Yes, he
may do so with impunity if there be no prohibiting
law,lDut has he any moral right ? Is he not doing an
injury to his neighbours ? Perchance he is a stock
farmer with an abundance of pasturage, and the
insects do not trouble him very seriously, or else he
does not notice their ravages. So the insects change
from the grub and caterpillar stages into winged insects,
which fly to the tempting fields of the agriculturist
and lay their eggs in the midst of his crops.

Purely selfish considerations should be set aside in
matters such as these. We know the quail is an
exceedingly useful bird in our struggle to keep insects
and weeds in check. Even the dullest-witted person

128

A domestic fowl half-skeletonised.

Skeleton of an abnormal domestic duck
This duck hud four feet. When resting it tilted itself back mi its hind
pair of feet, which are represented in the skeleton by the two bones project-
ing from the back of the bird.

From a specimen in the Port Elizabeth Museum
VOL. I. I29 q

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

can realise that an increase in the number of quails
would bring about a corresponding decrease in insects
and weeds.

The various species of partridges and pheasants
are also allies of the first rank in our war on insects
and weeds. These birds certainly provide excellent
sport, and their bodies are large, plump, and tender,
and therefore highly esteemed for food.

We have to pay heavily for the relaxation and food
obtained in this way. It is on record that certain
Roman emperors and governors banqueted their
guests on dishes of prepared nightingales' tongues,
larks' hearts, and various small birds' brains. We of
to-day think those Romans of old were wickedly waste-
ful. Yet we are in many ways no better. The food
value of the body of a partridge would be equal to
about a pound of butcher's meat. The natural life
of a partridge may be estimated at twenty years, and
during that period it would have rendered service to
us to the extent of many thousands of pounds sterling.
Assuming a partridge only devoured the small number
of fifty insects a day, during the course of a life of
twenty years the number thus disposed of would
total 365,000. Presuming the partridge had been
shot when a year old, and these insects had succeeded
in reaching maturity, an average of one-half of these
insects would be females. These would total 182,500.

Insects produce varying numbers of eggs, according
to their species. The termite (white ant) queen
lays several thousands of eggs every day during the
spring and summer seasons. At frequent intervals

130

BIRDS AND POOD

in summer countless hosts of winged and fertile male
and female termites pour out of their ancestral home
and fly into the air for a few hours. Descending to
the ground, the wings are discarded, and they go
forth in pairs to found new homes. Partridges and
quails assemble and greedily snap them off the grass
and the leaves and twigs on which they alight. For
days these birds search everywhere, scratching up
and scattering the loose leaves and soil, and pecking
amongst the roots of grass, shrubs, under stones, and
in holes for these lurking termites. Every pair of
termites destroyed means one colony less. A single
colony of termites is capable of inflicting serious
damage to man by destroying trees, shrubs, grass,
crops, fencing posts, and the woodwork and thatch
of houses, etc. Before I succeeded in discovering
and destroying a single colony of termites, they had
damaged my residence and outbuildings in Natal to
the extent of /,'i,ooo. The repairs to tenants' dwell-
ings, renewals of fencing posts, and other ravages by
these pests cost me an average of ^150 per annum.

I have found as many as 300 fertile termites in
the crop of a partridge, and 85 in a quail. Think
of it ! 300 king and queen termites at a single meal,
which means 150 colonies less of these terribly de-
structive creatures. In addition, the termite workers
make daily foraging expeditions, and at these times
the partridges and quails surprise and annihilate
them.

A tick lays from 2,000 to 18,000 eggs, according
to its species. Partridges are fond or ticks, and peck

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

them from the grass stems and search amongst the
roots of grasses, stones, shrubs, and dead vegetation.
They scratch up the soil like a fowl for the female tick
which has recently dropped from some animal and
has hidden herself preparatory to laying a batch of
eggs. With unerring instinct the partridge and quail
locate the grubs of beetles and other insects which pass
the larval stage of their lives underground. Mole
crickets, their eggs, and the eggs of the locust and
grasshopper are also exposed to view by the powerful
beak of the partridge, and greedily devoured.

Should the feeding-grounds of partridges be care-
fully examined, numerous small excavations will be
observed. These are the holes dug by the birds in
their search for root-eating grubs.

The holes and scratchings of partridges may
frequently be seen on the margins of cultivated fields.
The grain eaten by a partridge is as nothing to the
tremendous services rendered by it against the de-
structive insect hosts.

After grain is sown the partridges and pheasants
will sometimes dig up a little here and there on the
outskirts of the fields ; but these birds seldom move
far from cover, as they have a wholesome dread of
hawks and carnivorous animals.

The scratchings and holes made by partridges
amongst growing crops and vegetables are not for the
purpose of feeding upon their roots, but to expose and
devour the root-eating grubs and other insects, the
bulbs of wild plants, and the nodules on the roots of
water grasses.

132

BIRDS AND FOOD

- Pm

Worn-out tins and old flower pots may be used as nesting boxes. They
can be wired or nailed to trees in shady, sheltered situations.

+ 33

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

There are a good many species of partridges
and pheasants native to South Africa. They lay
from four to a dozen eggs, according to their kind,
and the young birds are active from birth, the same
as the chickens of a domestic fowl. The partridge
chicks eat enormous numbers of insects, termites, etc.
Although partridges and quails rear their families
chiefly during the summer months, yet it is not an
uncommon occurrence for them to breed in the winter
time, which is the game season in South Africa.
Therefore the death of a partridge or quail during the
game season may mean the destruction of a clutch of
eggs or chicks.

In the winter months, when insects are scarce,
the diet of the partridge consists mainly of wild bulbs,
berries, weed and grass seeds. In digging and
scratching for bulbs and seeds the bird unearths and
eats numbers of insects which are hibernating.

We estimated that in twenty years the very lowest
average of insects eaten by a partridge would number
365,000. Taking half this number to be females,
and assuming each produced only 500 eggs during
one summer season, we should have the total of
91,250,000 insects. Assuming, again, half of these
are females, we should, the following season, have at
the same rate of increase, which has been placed
at a very low figure, the overwhelming total ot
2,281,250,000 insects accounted for by one partridge.
Assuming, again, a partridge or quail captures and
swallows one fertile female " flying ant " (termite) ;
if this termite had escaped death it would have founded

134

BIRDS AND FOOD

a colony. In a short while it would grow as large as
a human thumb and be capable of laying thousands
of eggs daily. We will assume it lays 2,000 eggs every
day for six months in the year. Taking each month
at thirty days, we have a total of 360,000 termites.

It is a common occurrence for a partridge to eat
at least 200 flying ants in a day. Reckoning half of
these to be females, and that they would have laid
2,000 eggs a day for six months in the year, we find
the partridge in twelve months has prevented the
breeding of a vast host numbering 72,000,000 termites
by its act in eating 200 winged males and females.
Yet we are content to go on from year to year shooting
these birds merely to gratify our selfish instincts.
Are we living in an age of reason ? Seemingly not.

The guinea-fowl is another game bird which
renders highly valuable services to man by warring
on his behalf on insect pests, including locusts and
their eggs. It is a formidable enemy of the grass-
hopper, owing to its extreme nimbleness in chasing
and capturing these pests. It is out scouring the
veld at daybreak for the early worm which goes to
bed before sunrise.

The guinea-fowl has a voracious appetite, rapid
digestion, and a powerful beak for digging insects out
of their underground lairs. It supplements its insect
diet with berries, seeds, and various species of native
bulbs.

When allowed to increase unduly in the neighbour-
hood of cultivated lands, it invades the fields and takes
a toll of grain. When shot at a few times, however,

l35

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

it becomes very wild and suspicious, and usually
retires from the haunts of man.

The bustards (otherwise known as paauws and
knorhaans) and the various species of plovers are
hunted and shot in such numbers that in many districts
they have been almost, if not quite, exterminated,
notwithstanding the fact that they render sterling
service to the agriculturist and stock farmer. Their
chief diet consists of insect and allied forms of life.
They devour immense numbers of " white ants,"

locusts, grasshoppers, vegeta-
tion-destroying grubs, cater-
pillars, and beetles. The wild
duck renders excellent service
by checking the growth of
water plants, and feeding on
water snails which act as
hosts in the life cycle of some
stock and human diseases.
All past experience shows
that the preservation and protection of insect-eating
birds is not only essential in the interests of the
individual farmer, but is of vital importance in the
interests of food production in South Africa.

A true sportsman should surely not desire to
raise his gun against any creature which he knew was
helping him and his race in their struggle for existence.
He may argue he is a townsman, and the birds do not
in any way benefit him. This would be an extremely
narrow and selfish view to take. The villages, towns,
and cities depend largely and often entirely on the

136

Food House attached to wall
of shed. This is a very
tine feeding shelter.

BIRDS AND FOOD

Various types of bird nesting boxes.
137

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

development of the land and the prosperity of the
farmers. A scarcity of birds means a rapid increase
in destructive insects, and a corresponding decrease
in the prosperity of the individual, the community,
and the State.

It would be well for the country if the sportsman
confined himself mainly to shooting four-footed game,
such as antelopes and hares. These animals are of no
economic value. Their mission in life is to act as a
check on vegetation, but their services in this respect
are no longer required. We need the vegetation for
our domestic animals. Moreover, the buck and the
hare are very destructive to crops. The farmer would
be well advised to ban the shooting of all game birds
on his lands.

It might be that under protection they would
increase too largely and take to eating his corn owing
to the dearth of insects, wild bulbs, weed and grass
seeds. Should this occur he can easily reduce their
numbers to normal with his gun, and at the same
time give them a lesson not to encroach too freely
on his lands during the sowing time and when the
corn is ripening. Even if rigorously protected by
man, the game birds are not likely to increase unduly.
They are preyed upon by various carnivorous animals
and birds of prey. Rats eat their eggs and young,
wire-worms attack their vitals and destroy them, and
diseases peculiar to their kind ever and anon reduce
their numbers. I have, in my time, been as keen a
hunter and sportsman as anyone, but after discovering
by personal investigation that game birds were of

i38

BIRDS AND NATIVE BOYS

greater value to us alive than dead, I curbed my
destructive instincts and ranged myself on the side
of the birds. I now regard them as friends and
helpers, and if some of them take a little grain for
wages when hard pressed, after they have exterminated
the insects on the farm, well then, good luck to them,
for is not a good labourer worthy his hire ? Surely
we do not grudge a handful or two of grain for an
entire year's services in the destruction of insects,
seeds of weeds, and troublesome pasture-destroying
bulbs.

BIRDS AND NATIVE BOYS

Native children destroy immense numbers of birds.
It matters not to them what the species may
be. The native herd boys while away their time in
seeking for birds' nests, trapping birds, killing them
with throwing sticks, and catching them with bird-lime.
It is not pure destructiveness which animates the
native boy. It is food he is after. If the eggs are large
he takes and roasts them in the hot ashes of a fire.
The eggs of small birds are left until the nestlings are
feathered. They are then taken from the nest, spitted
and grilled.

Native boys are very expert in setting bird traps
and snares. They kill large numbers of partridges,
quails, crakes, rails, bustards, and other ground birds

139

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

by acting in concert. Several boys will advance
in crescent form, each armed with a knob stick,
and accompanied by dogs of nondescript breeds.
When the bird is flushed the boys throw their sticks
simultaneously. The quarry, in dodging some of the
sticks, is frequently knocked down by one of the
others. I have often seen Kafir boys make large bags
of quails and partridges in this manner.

To put a check on this wholesale destruction of
birds by native boys is a thorny problem. To await
the time when the native is sufficiently educated and
mentally evolved to be amenable to reason and persua-
sion in this matter is impossible. Ere that time
arrives our native birds, or great numbers of them,
will be extinct.

The only practical way to check their practices
would seem to be by prohibiting the robbing of nests
and the capture and killing of wild birds under very
severe penalties, and a rigorous enforcement of the
law. It is useless making laws and not providing
the necessary machinery to punish those who violate
them.

At present, in many districts of the Union of
South Africa, the majority of species of birds are
protected by law, but snaring, killing, and robbing-
nests go on as of old, because it is nobody's special
business to enforce the law. The majority of people,
both white and coloured, are even unaware of the
existence of bird protection laws.

140

THE STUDY OF BIRD LIFE

THE STUDY OF BIRD LIFE

Robbing birds' nests, if not encouraged, is at least
permitted by the majority of parents ; the boy, in
consequence, looks upon it as an innocent pastime.
Every egg taken from a nest is one ally less in our
fight against the insect enemy. Boys have a passion
for collecting eggs, which are hoarded up for a brief
period, then neglected and thrown away, or smashed.
This indiscriminate collecting of birds' eggs by boys is
stupid and senseless. It is very rarely we find a boy
making a systematic collection, viz., affixing the name,
locality, date, number of eggs in the clutch, colour,
when collected, etc. A boy who possesses the know-
ledge to do this is always sufficiently educated on the
subject to never be tempted to take more than a single
egg from a nest. However, birds' egg collecting in
any shape or form should be sternly forbidden by
parents and guardians of boys. It is infinitely prefer-
able to teach boys that birds are their friends and
helpers, and as such they should be protected in every
way possible.

When seed-eating birds increase unduly in numbers
and become a serious menace to the agriculturist,
the destruction of their nests and their egg or
nestling contents is often advocated by those in
authority and by individual farmers. This method of
reduction is essentially wrong, for the reason that
these birds rear their young at the time when the
crops are green and succulent. At this time insect

141

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

pests are at the maximum of their destructiveness,
and wise Nature has arranged that birds shall build
their nests and rear their families at this critical period
in the life of the grain plant. The young of the
species of seed-eating birds which prey on the farmers'
grain are fed on larvae, chiefly young caterpillars.
The appetite of a rapidly growing nestling bird is
prodigious, and the number of caterpillars it can
digest in the course of a day is phenomenal.

Many species of birds are so suspicious and
afraid of man that if their nests are disturbed, or an
egg removed, they desert them. Others do not
abandon the nests, but they never build a second time
in such a dangerous locality. Through lack of
knowledge and humane teaching, boys are often guilty
of the most diabolically cruel actions. I have seen
boys catch the fiskal shrike (otherwise known as the
jack hanger) with bird-lime, pluck out all its body
feathers, and let it go. I came upon a boy lying
behind a shrub with a shot-gun. In front of him
was a bare spot where the refuse from a flour mill
had been dumped. Every time a flock of weaver
and widow birds assembled to feed on the refuse,
he fired amongst them. The dead birds were placed
in a bag, and the wounded ones fastened by a leg with
twine. When I came on the scene there were upwards
of fifty wounded, blood-smeared birds struggling
piteously to free themselves, and the human demon
was looking on and gloating over them. He was
the son of one of the leading citizens, and attended a
high-class college, too.

142

THE STUDY OK BIRD LIFE

Fig, D , the "Waldcn."

Figs. A B, C, nd D.— For Starlings, Woodpeckers, and any kinds of forest
birds which build nests with the entrance at the side. It enlarged
with a sufficiently big entrance hole they will be utilised by owls.

Figs. E and F. — For Wagtails, Kobinchats, Thrushes, Flycatchers, Doves,
and other birds which build open nests.

143

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

It is a common pastime for boys to wantonly shoot
into the nests of breeding birds. I came upon several
boys one day with air-guns, and their targets were the
hanging nests of a colony of weaver birds. In order
to obtain some facts to write an article on the incident
to the local newspaper, I climbed the tree, and with a
long, hooked stick pulled the nests within reach.
Most of the nests contained fledgling birds, the
majority of which were dead or wounded. In one nest
the brooding mother bird had been shot through the
brain, and her body was, even in death, spread over
her eggs. Another parent bird was lying dead in the
midst of her children, who gaped wide their mouths
for caterpillars when I peered into the nest through a
hole made in the top. Not a single nest had escaped
those murderous boys. Dead and wounded baby
birds or smashed eggs there were in all of them, and
parent birds, frantic with grief and terror, flying to
and fro.

Can anything equal this in cruelty ? Yes, the
wearing of the plumes of wild birds is worse, for, in
order to obtain those feathers, parent birds are brutally
done to death in the breeding season, resulting in
hundreds of thousands of baby birds dying miserably
of starvation. Why are the birds killed when they
are breeding ? Because at that season the feathers
have attained their maximum degree of beauty.

Boys should be taught to study the ways and
habits of birds, armed with note-book and camera.
The student of birds rapidly learns to love them.
How can it be otherwise when we know that birds

144

THE STUDY OF BIRD LIFE

have nervous systems as sensitive as ours to pain,
and that they rival and even transcend us in the acute-
ness and depth of their affection and higher emotions.
Some species of birds, in losing a mate, will die of
grief or remain the rest of their lives faithful to the
memory of their dead love. Others are frantic with
grief for a longer or shorter period, as with ourselves,
before marrying again. The bird leads a life on a
parallel with the majority of the human folk. The
cock bird courts his lady love even more keenly and
persistently than the enamoured young man. He
usually has several rivals, each of which seeks by a
show of his power in song, flight, display of plumage,
or physical vigour, or all combined, to win the young
lady's affections. She is coy and shy at first, but,
nevertheless, keenly observant. She holds them all
aloof until eventually one of them succeeds in kindling
the spark of love in her breast. The couple then
become engaged, and the rivals take themselves off in
anger and disgust. After a period of what human folk
couples term " spooning," they marry. Then with
joy in their hearts they begin building a home. Both
work hard, with intervals to make excursions for food.
Tired but happy when the day's work is over, they
seek out a secluded nook and, cuddling lovingly
together, they sleep until dawn. Eventually the
house is finished, and presently the husband bird is
sent into a paroxysm of delight on seeing a beautiful
egg in the nest. When the full clutch has been laid
the parent birds take turn about to keep the eggs
warm, so that the developing birdies within them shall
vol. i. 145 10

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

not perish of cold. In two weeks or longer, according
to the species of bird, the eager parents hear the feeble
cheep-cheep-cheep of the now fully matured babies in
the shells. Presently the shell covering bursts, and
the babies are born. The mother carefully takes the
broken shells in her bill, flies forth, and drops them
some distance from the nest to put bird-nesting boys
off the scent. Baby birds grow rapidly and require a
large quantity of food. The loving parents never
seem to tire, for to them it is a work of love. All
day long the farmers* fields, the garden, orchard, wood,
and veld are searched for insects. To and fro the
parent birds fly from dawn to dewy eve. Often, owing
to unfavourable weather and other reasons, barely
sufficient insects can be procured to satisfy the appetites
of the children, and the parents go to bed supperless.
The babies have the first claim, and should the day
yield few insects, all go into the stomachs of the
children, and the parents are content to fast, trusting
to the morrow to furnish a better harvest.

Alas ! how often do we bring woe and blackest
grief into these happy homes ? Coveting the beautiful
plumage of the father bird ! Seeing him busily search-
ing in the orchard or garden for caterpillars for his
children, and misinterpreting his actions ! Or in the
spirit of sheer wantonness he is shot to death with
catapult, air-gun, or shot-gun. His plumage is stripped
from his body to decorate a woman's hat or to add to a
collection of birds' skins. Perchance his feathered
body is simply left to rot where it fell. Would that
every bird-slaying boy could see what happens as the

146

THE STUDY OF BIRD LIFE

result of his thoughtless act. This is what he would
see. The mother bird soon misses her mate. She
grows uneasy, and calls again and again to him. Then
her uneasiness increases to alarm, and she flies from
tree to tree calling, calling, calling, alas ! in vain, for
her mate is dead. With a sinking heart and all joy
gone out of her life she works for her children, making
the neighbourhood resound with her piteous calls,
hoping against hope her dearly beloved mate may heat-
her cries. Nobly, faithfully, but wearily she slaves
to provide sufficient food for the little orphans. Retir-
ing to rest, heavy of heart, in, on, or near the nest, she
slumbers uneasily and, forgetting that her mate is dead,
she ever and anon in bird language murmurs en-
dearingly and snuggles up to him, to awake and find
herself alone. The struggle proves too much for her.
Emaciated and weary in body and mind, she dies of a
broken heart. What of the baby birds ? They die of
starvation.

Is this picture overdrawn ? No, not in the
slightest. I have watched the tragedy in my own
garden many a time. The cock bird had flown to a
neighbour's garden to collect caterpillars, and never
returned. The human folk in return for his services
had murdered him.

God has given us the means to make our struggle
for life a success. Nay, more; he has placed knowledge
within our grasp by which our kind can overspread the
earth and live and thrive even in great cities. In the
degree that man turns the golden grain of knowledge
to practical use, so will he advance and overcome

147

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Cat-proof fence and other devices for protecting birds from cats.
(From Economic Biology Bulletin No. 2, Massachusetts State
Board of Agriculture, 1916.)

I48

THE STUDY OF BIRD LIFE

Nature's adverse forces. With his weapons he has
obtained mastery over the entire sub-human kingdom.
Is his rule a wise and humane one ? Is it dictated
by reason, or by prejudice, superstition, individual
self-interest, and the wanton gratification of the
barbarian lust of killing — the joy of spilling blood ?

Of all the sub-human tribes and races under man's
sway, the birds are one, if not the most valuable.
Without their aid he could not exist, and yet they are
a possession on which he sets the least value. Those
who seek to teach him why the birds are such valuable
allies and helpers are disheartened and discouraged
by the indifference of the various authorities and the
people generally. It is those people who are ignorant
of their ignorance, who clog the wheels of human
progress. If a severe check is not put upon the
present wanton and wholesale destruction of birds,
man will bring upon himself a terrible retribution — a
disaster which will be without parallel in the history
of his race.

The following remarks by James Buckland are
both forcible and true : " Wherever there are birds
whose plumage is suitable for millinery, there will the
cruel and rapacious agents of the feather dealers be
found engaged in orgies of wasteful destruction.
Wherever there are birds that are classed as ' game,'
there hastens the market hunter to kill, kill, kill, so
long as any saleable thing remains to be killed.
Wherever there are species that have been harried
by man to the brink of extinction, there will be the
collector also, anxious to obtain the last lingering

149

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

representatives of a race before his rival gets a chance
to do so. Wherever there are birds whose eggs are
valuable, there hurries the egg collector to destroy,
not only the embryonic life, but often the mature life
as well, by shooting the bird that laid the egg for the
purpose of identification. Wherever in the wild places
of the earth there are birds which are considered to be
1 good sport,' there saunters that vandal of creation,
the hunter of means and leisure, to expend on the
most beautiful and the most harmless works of Nature
his instinctive desire to kill."

" Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these ?

Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught
The dialect they speak, where melodies

Are the interpreters of thought ?
Whose household words are songs in many keys.
Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught !
Whose habitation in the tree-tops even

Are half-way houses on the road to heaven ! "

Longfellow.

BIRDS AND HUMAN PROGRESS

Birds, we now know, are necessary to man in his
struggle for food. The human race is steadily increas-
ing in numbers and spreading out over the world.
When a new country is colonised there is ample
elbow room ; and the settler, muddling along in any
sort of haphazard manner, is in little or no danger of

150

BIRDS AND HUMAN PROGRESS

starvation. As the population increases in numbers,
the struggle for existence becomes increasingly keen.
Men can no longer.afford to live more or less in a state
of Nature ; or, to use a South African term, " Sit on the
stoep and watch the wool growing on the sheep."
Competition rouses him. He finds he must progress
or be submerged and perish off the face of the earth.
Knowledge gives him power over the forces of Nature.
He who sits at home while a plague is sweeping off
his cattle is not the kind of man who will make any
headway to-day. An ever-increasing population can
only be sustained and maintained by taking advantage
to the full of every discovery of science. Too much
money cannot be spent on educating the people and
in helping scientific institutions. Education and
human advancement go hand in hand. Every useful
discovery should be taken full advantage of. We
have, for instance, only lately discovered that we
have in the bird tribe an asset of the highest possible
value. We know that if wild birds are carefully
safeguarded they will not only make our struggle for
existence much easier, but by their aid our race will
be enabled to multiply on the face of the land.

If it were not for the damage inflicted upon us by
insects and their kindred, we could produce at least
twice as much food. Not only this, but much of
the money, time, and energy expended at present in
warring on insects could be turned into other channels.

If there was a vast forest of magnificent trees, and
ignorant men were allowed to fell the trees merely for
the sake of gathering the flowers or berries on them,

l5l

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

we would indignantly demand that such vandalism
should cease. On the other hand, we stand idly by
while the birds, which are God's agents in keeping
down insect pests, are slain simply for a few feathers
or to provide a mouthful or two of food. One bird
alive is worth a thousand dead.

Millions of money is spent on irrigation and in
fighting insects by artificial methods, but little atten-
tion, money, or thought is given to the utilisation,
protection, and encouragement of Nature's insect
destroyers by the states and nations of the world.

AESTHETIC AND SENTIMENTAL
VALUE OF BIRDS

Without birds it would be to us like living in a
house with interior walls unplastered and no decora-
tions or other artistic furnishings. Man is not
destined to live for the gratification of animal desires
and passions only. He has been created for higher
purposes. He is destined to go on steadily unfolding
and developing his moral, altruistic, and spiritual
faculties. A muscle will not grow in strength unless
it is systematically exercised. Neither will any of the
brain centres. If a man lives in the back kitchen of
his brain, or, in other words, if he only uses the parts
of his brain which he has in common with lower
animals, those brain centres will grow increasingly

152

SENTIMENTAL VALUE OF BIRDS

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*53

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

strong, and the others correspondingly weak. He
will then be a slave to his passions — a man devoid of
moral and aesthetic sense. Such a man is lower than
an animal, for the reason that the former often indulges
his animal appetites so freely and so frequently that
he loses control of them. They become abnormal,
and master him. For instance, he will slay for the
mere lust and pleasure of killing, and boast aloud of
his prowess. On the contrary, the carnivorous animals
kill for food only, for they know no other means of
sustaining themselves.

The crocodile is presented to us as the incarnation
of all that is cold-blooded, cruel, and implacable —
devoid of reason or moral sense. Yet this same reptile
can teach us a lesson. When lying basking in the
sun, birds gather around its head and feed upon gnats
and flies which disturb its slumbers. When the
crocodile gapes its jaws to allow the sun rays to warm
up the cavernous depths, the birds do not hesitate to
pursue and snap up their prey even inside those
terrible jaws, which could snap like a spring trap.
The crocodile is only a reptile, yet it is sufficiently
intelligent to recognise the bird as a benefactor, and
treats it as such.

What return does man make for the services of
birds in making it possible to grow crops or to save
his pasture lands and forests from annihilation ?
Does he befriend and protect these true and faithful
allies ? No ; on the contrary he ravages their homes ;
wounds, maims, and kills them. The remnant, in
terror, flee to the wilderness, or, forced by hunger,

l5*

Plate IV. — Orange-breasted Rock-Jumper (Chactops aurantiacus).
The Rock-Jumpers are the guardians of the pasturage and
scanty vegetation of the stony lulls

SENTIMENTAL VALUE OF BIRDS

they visit his fields and pasture lands and snap up the
insects by stealth, retreating in wild alarm on sight of
their persecutor. Man's hand has ever been raised
against those of his own race who, seeing farther in
advance of the masses, seek to benefit them. Christ
sought to raise the people to a higher moral and
spiritual plane. His reward was death on the cross.

The Greek philosopher, Socrates, taught the people
to think of higher things than the gratification of
the desires of the flesh only. He sowed the seeds of
wisdom, and his reward was death by poison. So it will
be until man directs his life by an educated intellect,
acting in combination with the moral and spiritual
organs of the brain. There is a subtle, uplifting,
spiritual influence in the study of birds and their
ways.

Wandering into the fields weary and depressed,
the cheerful, bright, optimistic calls and cries of the
birds and their happy, joyous ways and beautiful
forms inspire one to renewed effort.

What would the woods and fields be without birds ?
As barren and unattractive to the aesthetic senses as
the flowerless, weed-covered garden. Authors, artists,
and poets rave of the emotion-stirring songs and the
glorious gracefulness of birds, and the inspiration they
thus receive in their work. Can anything be more
elevating to the soul or more stirring to the higher
emotions than the song of a lovely bird singing to
his mate while she contentedly sits close on her eggs,
her entire being suffused with love for her companion
and solicitude for the welfare of her eggs ? The song

lS5

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of a bird ! What does it mean to many ? A signal to
stealthily creep through the shrubbery and slay the
songster.

A beautiful bird upon a bough suggested food or
feathers to him, and nothing more.

For days and weeks at a time I have dwelt alone
with Nature and the birds in the forests of Natal,
content to study their ways and habits with field
glasses, while lying hidden from view. Lying under a
forest tree wrapped in a blanket on a warm summer's
night, I lay listening to the monotonous hoot of the
rat and mouse devouring owl, and the mournful cry
of the insect-slaying night jar.

On the first peep of dawn the woods resounded
with emotion-stirring songs and the nerve-bracing
calls of its feathered inhabitants. One's mind in
such surroundings cannot dwell upon gross and
material things. Spiritual desires and emotions are
awakened, and the soul feels its kinship with the
Creator.

A friend, whom I shall never forget, was a Boer
farmer in Natal. He was one of Nature's gentlemen,
and his word was his bond. His homestead was
surrounded with plantations which were teeming with
insectivorous birds, for that farmer and his children
never raised a hand against these beautiful living
jewels of the woods. Once he caught a Kafir boy
robbing an oriole's nest. The boy wended his way
home wiser but sadder. Many scores of times I
have sat on that wise and humane farmer's stoep
watching the birds, and listening to the stories of the

.56

HOW TO SAVE OUR FEATHERED ALLIES

children about their ways and habits. The birds
were their friends and companions, and the thought of
doing them an injury never entered their minds. Life
on a farm would be joyless indeed without the presence
of birds. There is an uplifting, spirit-awakening
influence in the study of birds which no other form
of life can inspire.

" The lack of humane education is the principal
cause of crime."

HOW TO SAVE OUR FEATHERED
ALLIES

Argument and persuasion fall unheeded on the
ignorant, the uncouth, and the vicious. They cannot
be made to realise the harm which they do by wantonly
destroying birds. Many birds to them are of evil
omen, and therefore should be destroyed. Others
provide a meal, or their plumage or skins will bring
in a few coins. With others the desire to kill is still
strong within them — an instinct which has come down
through the ages from our remote ancestors, who lived
by the products of the chase. So, in order to gratify
this brutal instinct, they attack the most beautiful and
lovable of God's creations — the birds. Such people
can only be restrained by fear of punishment.

Stray domestic cats in and about towns and villages,
and homesteads on farms, destroy great numbers of

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

nestling and adult birds. Instead of destroying the
surplus kittens at birth, they are frequently allowed
to live and are subsequently given away to promiscuous
people, or permitted to run wild. If the former be
their fate they are invariably neglected, ill-used, and
starved. If the latter, they gain a livelihood by
preying largely upon wild birds.

A Bird Protection Act and an Act forbidding the
importation and exportation of the skins or feathers
of wild birds are essential in order to deal effectively
with those who are not amenable to moral suasion.

The kernel of the evil is want of knowledge as
to birds, their habits and economic value.

The conservation of the native birds is of vital
importance to the country — how vital few, other than
ornithologists, realise. Educate the school children,
and in a generation the problem will be solved and for
all time, for the children of to-day are to be the parents
of to-morrow. Parents possessing this special know-
ledge can be trusted to hand it on to their children.

It is not necessary to interfere with the present
curriculum of the schools. It is eminently desirable
that school children be taught the natural history of
their country, with special reference to its economic
side. This could come under the heading of Nature
Study.

The public museums could be made of much greater
value in this respect by having economic series of
exhibits with explanatory labels.

It could be made a duty of the curator or a com-
petent member of the staff to make periodic tours and

i58

Nesting boxes in position on trees and along a fence.

159

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

give lantern lectures to the various schools. There
need be no overlapping if a list of the schools to be
visited is furnished to every museum authority.

The subsidy which it would be necessary to grant
each museum for this work would be a mere trifle —
a drop from an ocean in comparison to the economic
value of the work to the State. If a thorough
systematic educational campaign was launched, and
this one subject alone taught, viz., the economic value
of native birds, South Africa would, within ten years,
be richer by at least a million sterling everv vear.

Silently and unseen the insect hosts are taking a
heavy toll of the fruits of man's industry. The locusts
are an example. By reason of their size and habit of
congregating in great swarms they attract special
attention. If we slackened in our defensive and
offensive thev would, in a season, easily cause loss
to the country of half a million sterling.

The destructive grasshoppers are a hundred times
more abundant than the migratory locusts, even when
the latter are at their worst, yet because they are
scattered broadcast throughout the land and do not
congregate like the locust in great swarms, the ravages
they commit are not noticed ; and instead of warring
on them, we turn our weapons on the birds which
God has given us to keep them in check.

As the birds increase in numbers, so will the
grasshoppers and other plant destroyers decrease.
Then in God's name why not take practical measures
to increase the natural enemies of these foes of the
human race ?

1 60

NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS

If a mighty host of armed men attacked us, and our
very existence was threatened, we would gladly avail
ourselves of proffered help from an ally to beat back
the foe. Under such circumstances would we be
justified in turning in fury upon our ally because a
few hungry individuals of the army fighting for us
took a little food now and then from those on whose
behalf they were fighting ? Assuredly not. Yet this
is what we are doing with the birds, which are not
only helping us in the fight against the ravening
hordes of insects, but which are actually doing nine-
tenths of the fighting.

" The greatest of all needs is more education of the heart."
— Hiram Maxim.

NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS

All forms of life on earth have their natural enemies
which prevent any increase in numbers beyond the
requirements of Nature. A constant warfare is being
waged. It is indeed a struggle for the survival of
the fittest, both mentally and physically. The struggle
for food and the dread of falling a prey to some enemy
keeps all creatures from stagnating. Those individuals
of a species which have a greater measure of intelligence
and bodily vigour than others of their kind are the
most likely ones to survive and perpetuate the race,
resulting in the conservation and preservation of
vol. i. 161 II

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162

NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS

physical health and a progressive development of
intelligence from generation to generation. Should any
species of creature succeed in increasing abnormally
in numbers, the balance of Nature is soon restored,
because their enemies, owing to the abundance of food,
also increase in proportion. For instance, when
insects are numerous, birds have plenty of food for
themselves and young, and they, in consequence,
become more plentiful. The birds from all the
surrounding parts also flock in for a share, and remain
so long as there is food for them.

So it is with other forms of life. When vegetation
increases abnormally, the herbivorous animals flock to
it and the carnivorous animals follow. The balance
of Nature is perfectly adjusted, and swings backwards
and forwards like the pendulum of a clock, until man
steps in and dislocates the machinery.

Man kills great numbers of the natural enemies of
birds, and it might be considered that as a consequence
birds would increase abnormally. Man, however, as
a general rule destroys more birds directly and indirectly
than all these natural enemies, and counteracts the
good he does in destroying some of the enemies of
birds. Then again, it must be remembered that the
artificial cultivation of plants and domestication of
animals provides enormous facilities for the abnormal
increase of insects. Therefore a corresponding increase
in the number of birds is necessary. Purely insectivorous
birds, if not persecuted by man, would fluctuate in
numbers in accordance with the abundance or otherwise
of insect life. On the contrary, birds which supple-

163

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

ment an insect diet with grain and fruit would become
increasingly troublesome and destructive should they
increase abnormally, for, driven by hunger, they
would attack the orchards and crops in ever-increasing
numbers. Should such an increase occur, and after
mature consideration and observation it was found
these birds were really too numerous, their numbers
could be reduced. No man should ever come to a

hasty decision, however,
for a large increase in
the number of birds is
frequently a sign of
unusual activity in the
insect world. Birds
are keenly intelligent
and more alive to the
right and best condi-
tions for rearing their
young than are the
majority of human folk.
The large number of birds often seen on cultivated
farms during the summer time is not necessarily
because they have foregathered to attack the 'crops.
Insects breed on cultivated lands at a phenomenal
rate. The winged mature insects flock in for miles
around and lay their eggs amongst the crops, knowing
full well that their offspring have greatly increased
chances of reaching maturity than if obliged to subsist
on the hard and limited native vegetation. Soft
insects, such as grubs and caterpillars, are necessary
food for the young birds, and naturally the parents

164

Hungry Baby Birds.

THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT

choose the neighbourhood of a farm for preference
when the time arrives to rear a family.

Birds have many natural enemies. Carnivorous
animals, rats, and snakes levy a heavy toll. The
venomous boomslang (Dispholidus typus) and the
mamba (Dendraspis angusticeps) are highly destructive
to eggs and nestlings. Another snake known as the
egg-eater or eier vreter (Dasypeltis scabrd) subsists
almost exclusively on the eggs of birds. The monitor
lizard or leguan {Varanus niloticus) supplements its
diet of frogs, grasshoppers, and crabs with birds' eggs
and nestlings. The common brown or Norway rat
(Mus norvegicus) has been introduced into every
country of the world, and thrives exceedingly. It
levies a heavy toll on the eggs and young of birds
which nest in the vicinity of man.

Birds of prey attack and kill a limited number of
useful birds, and a few species of shrikes and crows
occasionally eat eggs and nestlings. However, until
man threw his weight into the scale against them, the
birds throve and fulfilled their mission in life.

THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT

Closely rivalling the insects in their crop-devouring
powers, we have the rodents known as rats and mice.
In South Africa there are large numbers of species
native to the country, and three imported kinds, viz.,

i65

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the brown rat (Mus norvegicus), black rat (Mus
rattus), and house mouse (Mus domesticus).

The loss they occasion to man the world over is
incalculable. The produce consumed in South Africa
alone by rodent animals would feed a large army of
men and horses. They prey upon all forms of good
and useful vegetation. They attack the forests,
pasturage, growing and stacked corn, grain in bags,
seeds, root crops (both in the ground and barn), young
trees and shrubs, buds, fruit, and even flowers. Any-
thing and everything of an edible nature to man and
his domestic animals they gnaw and devour. Not
content with these crimes, they overrun his dwellings
and stores, nibbling, tearing, and wasting in their
wantonness. Some kinds of birds take fruit or grain
now and then from man, but they, with but few
exceptions, render sterling service for it.

The rat and mouse, on the contrary, are out-and-
out pests — vermin of the purest water. They con-
stitute a steady and continuous drain upon mankind.
The quantity of good grain eaten by rats and mice
in the various countries of the world would be sufficient
to feed at least fifty million people. Another fifty
millions could be sustained on the other kinds of
foodstuffs eaten by these ravagers of the produce of
man's labour.

Some of the rodents are active carriers of diseases.
For instance, the rat harbours a flea which can inoculate
man with bubonic plague. The brown rat visits the
garbage barrels, privies, sick chambers, cesspools,
drains, etc., and gets smothered with the germs of

166

THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT

various diseases, and distributes them throughout
human dwellings, and even on his foodstuffs. Man
has warred from time immemorial on rats and mice.
He has called in the aid of the inventor, the chemist,
the bacteriologist, and the cat, but he has failed as
lamentably as in his campaign against insects. With
all his efforts he can barely keep them in check.
Should he relax his pressure for a single year they
would overwhelm him.

Surely Nature has not so ordered it that man should
be overthrown by the rat and mouse. Assuredly not.
Nature has provided a host of enemies to keep these
rapidly breeding rodents in check. Carnivorous
animals, both large and small, prey constantly on them,
but unfortunately the majority of these animals, when
in the vicinity of man, attack and destroy his stock
animals and poultry, and have to be exterminated.
The destruction of these natural checks results in an
increase of rats and mice with a correspondingly
large amount of damage to produce, pasturage, and
forests. Snakes prey largely on rats and mice, but
many of these reptiles are venomous and cannot be
tolerated in our neighbourhood.

Again we are obliged to invoke the services of the
bird to save us. Hawks and owls are the principal
enemies of the rapidly breeding rat and mouse tribe.
The hawk by day and the owl by night wage a steady,
unceasing war upon them. Without the hawk and
owl, man would be in a sorry plight indeed. Yet man
is so dominated by prejudice, false beliefs, and supersti-
tions in regard to owls and hawks that he continues

167

The Wattled Starling, or Little Locust Bird {Dilophus carunculaius).
combines in great flocks and annihilates vast swarms of migratory
locusts. When locusts are unobtainable it preys on grasshoppers
and a variety of other destructive insects and their larvae.

The Black-vented Glossy Starling (Lamprocolit<s melanogaster) confines
itself to the thicker portions of the coast bush, and feeds on insects,
berries, and wild fruits.

1 68

THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT

to persecute them relentlessly in the face of the
unanimous testimony of ornithologists who have made
a life-study of birds and their food. How can it be
otherwise, however, when economic natural history
is not taught in schools, and the people pass their
leisure time in reading books of fiction only ?

A female rat is capable of producing as many as six
litters a year, and from eight to ten in a litter. The
progeny begin breeding when half grown. So rapidly
do they multiply, that from a single pair a large city
or a farm miles in extent would, in a few years, be
overrun with a countless horde of these destructive
rodents.

Thrice fortunate it is for man that he can command
the service of the hawk and the owl in his fight for
life against the rat and mouse tribe. Without the help
rendered by owls and hawks these rodents would eat
him out of house and home.

We possess a very reliable means of finding out
what kind of diet the owl is most partial to. These
birds regurgitate or vomit pellets consisting of the
indigestible portion of the bodies of their prey, such
as the hair and bones.

A pair of barn owls (Strix flammea maculatd), or
dood-vogel, reared their offspring in the loft of an
old outbuilding. After the young were reared and
had flown away I examined the nest and found in the
regurgitated pellets the skulls of 698 mice and rats
of various species. Another pair inhabited a large
cavity in an old tree trunk, and after two broods of
young had been reared I examined the hole and found

169

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

pellets containing the skulls or portions of skulls of
1,089 mice, and those of 71 rats, as well as the remains
of a variety of insects. These results were confirmed
by over fifty similar observations at various times and
places.

Although this bird wages nightly warfare on the
mice which infest the farmer's barns, stacks, and
fields, it is given no mercy. Some farmers, believing
it destroys poultry or game, shoot it down at sight;
others kill it or allow their children or employees to do
so through sheer love of taking life. There is a
widespread superstition amongst uneducated country
people that if this bird settles on the roof of a house
and hoots, one of the members of the household is
sure to die. Impelled by this stupid belief these
eminently valuable birds are remorselessly killed or
driven from the neighbourhood.

If men regard knowledge as a weariness of the
flesh, and neglect to acquire it, they pay dearly for
their ignorance, and will continue so to suffer until
they awaken from their lethargy.

There are two distinct classes of owls — the large
eagle owls and those of smaller size. The smaller
owls, of which there are several species in South
Africa, prey chiefly on mice and rats. When
this form of prey is scarce, the larger of the insects
which are active at night are captured and eaten.
The eagle owls, so-called because of their large size,
are equally valuable to man, for 90 per cent, of their
diet consists of rats and mice. Farmers are far too
apt to condemn this extremely valuable bird because it

170

THE INSTRUCTIVE RODENT

sometimes kills poultry. The enlightened, progressive
farmer constructs vermin-proof enclosures in which
his fowls can roost at night. The lazy, easy-going
type prefer to let the poultry sleep in trees, or any-
where ; and when an eagle owl, driven to desperation
by hunger, attacks and kills a fowl, the owner's ire is
aroused, and all owls are shot on sight ever afterwards.
Even should an eagle owl be known to take fowls in
this way it would be fir more economical for the
farmer to make a proper roosting enclosure for his
fowls than to kill that owl.

Should an owl only succeed in killing one rat every
night it would render great service to man, for about
half of the t>6$ rats killed annually for a period of
twenty-five to thirty years and longer would be females,
each of which would have produced half a dozen litters
of eight to ten in a litter annually.

Now and then an eagle owl succeeds in killing
a hare. Knowing this, the sportsman regards this
bird as a foe. What is the life of an occasional
hare against the swarms of rats and mice slain bv
this magnificent bird ? The hare is a destructive
rodent and a positive pest devoid of any economic value.
The bird is often accused of being destructive to game
birds, particularly partridges and pheasants. This is
not so. These birds hide away so effectually at night
that it is impossible for the owl to see them. It must
be borne in mind that owls hunt for their prey by night
only, and in doing so they invariably skim noiselessly
over the land and drop down upon their victims before
they can find a refuge. The mission of the owl is to

171

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

keep nocturnal rodents in check ; and the hawk preys
upon those which come forth to feed by day.

The worst enemy of the game bird is the rat.
This rodent, particularly the bold brown rat, destroys
the eggs, chicks, and even adult birds. But so silently
and secretly does it work, that men do not perceive its
fearful ravages, but, finding the remains of a young
hare or game bird on occasion in the pellets or crops
of eagle owls, they slay these birds which are the
saviours of game birds, crops, and pasturage. Truly
man has eyes, but he sees not. In the course of a
year an eagle owl may kill two or three partridges
which were unwise enough to venture from their
retreats before the owls had retired to rest at break
of day. One rat will kill the sitting bird and ravage
a nest containing eight to a dozen eggs in a single
night. Ascending the trees, and guided by its keen
sense of smell, it preys upon the eggs and helpless
young of highly valuable insect-eating birds ; or,
having a fancy for grain, it visits the standing crops
or barns, and feasts to repletion.

An owl kills a minimum of 1,000 rats and mice a
year, and indirectly saves great numbers of valuable
birds and produce. The young of both owls and hawks
remain a long time in the nest and consume great
quantities of food, which consists almost entirely of
destructive rodents captured by the parents.

I have seen eagle owls mobbed by small birds
during the daytime, and never on any occasion did
they attempt to retaliate. Even when in the deep,
dark recesses of the forests they did not make any

172

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~<

173

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

attempts to seize their tormentors, although within
reach of bill and claw. I have examined the cast-up
pellets of the three species of South African eagle owls
at various times and seasons, and the results furnished
overwhelming proof that these birds render invaluable
service to man by eating rats and mice. The farmer
who destroys or allows others to destroy any species
of owl on his farm is doing himself, his neighbours,
and the State a serious mischief.

The spotted eagle owl {Bubo maculosus) is the
species which renders the South African farmer the
greatest service ; the other two are shyer birds and
flee from the haunts of man, having learned by bitter
experience how treacherous and untrustworthy he is.

The spotted eagle owl is one of the nocturnal
keepers of our lands and plantations, and the poaching
rats and mice lead hard and perilous lives when these
owls are abroad.

Unfortunately, however, the spotted eagle owl's cry
to his mate is a mournful hoot, or rather succession of
hoots. This is thought by ignorant people to be an
augury of death to a member of the household, and,
like its cousin the barn owl, the spotted eagle owl is
sacrificed at the altar of superstition.

The barbarous, inhuman cruelties inflicted upon
God's creatures on this beautiful world by people
who are under the influence of stupid superstitious
beliefs is simply unthinkable. I have heard men
boast of their fiendish practices against our friend the
owl. Through ignorance of the first principles of
hygiene, a child died, and the superstitious father,

174

THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT

having heard the hoot of an owl some hours prior to the
boy's decease, concluded the bird was in some way
responsible. A relentless war on the owls followed.
So dominated by senseless superstition was he, that
when an owl fell winged, he, with a curse, left it to
die an agonising, lingering death.

The owl is the only bird which preys on nocturnal
rodents, and the night jar on night-flying insects ; con-
sequently every effort, both educational and coercive,
should be employed to protect these birds from
molestation. A few species of ordinary diurnal birds
might be exterminated, and other species would do
their work. But should the owl and night jar be
annihilated, there are no others to fill the gaps. The
principal diet of hawks consists of rats and mice.
They also devour prodigious numbers of locusts,
grasshoppers, and other vegetation-eating creatures.

When omnivorous small birds increase abnormally
in numbers, they are apt to become a pest, owing to
their natural diet of insects and seeds of weeds and
grasses not being sufficient for their needs. Hawks
are Nature's agents in preventing small birds breeding
too rapidly, and also in checking disease and eliminating
the physically unfit ; for, naturally, a sick or inactive
bird falls an easy prey to a hawk.

Should hawks become too numerous, then it is
justifiable for man to reduce their numbers ; but this
should be done only after mature consideration and
observation. The larger species of hawks sometimes
become chicken thieves, and it is then necessary to
destroy them. But man is certainly not justified in

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

raising his hand against the entire hawk tribe because
of the predatory acts of a few hawks. Kill the offenders
certainly, but leave the others alone.

What of the quails and partridges taken by hawks ?
you ask. The number of these birds slain by hawks
is very few in comparison to the rats, mice, and insects
devoured. What matters an occasional quail, par-
tridge, pheasant, or rail to the saving of crops, planta-
tions, orchards, and pasturage from the ravenous hosts
of rats, mice, locusts, and grasshoppers ?

The governors of one of the States of America
many years ago, persuaded by the farmers that hawks
and owls were harmful to man, actually passed an Act
providing a bounty of fifty cents each for every hawk
and owl killed within the boundaries of the State. In
addition to this sum another twenty cents were given
as fee to the notary taking the affidavit. In two years
the State paid out 100,000 dollars in fees and bounties.
This mad slaughter of hawks and owls resulted in a
rapid increase of rats, mice, and other small rodents,
culminating in an actual loss to farmers in grain and
other crops of 4,850,000 dollars. This merely
represented the loss immediately following the de-
struction of the chief natural enemies of small rodents.
Many millions more of dollars were lost before the
balance of Nature was restored. And yet man still
prefers to muddle along, making more or less blind
hits and misses instead of calling in and profiting by
the advice of his men of science.

In Montana a similar stupid Act was passed which
also brought upon those foolhardy people an appalling

176

THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT

plague of rats. Then the governing body hastily re-
pealed the Act and passed another, offering bounties
for the destruction of rats, mice, and other small
rodents ; but the sums paid out were so great that the
legislature was hastily summoned, and the Act was
repealed because the State could not afford this
financial drain which threatened to render it bankrupt.

Later, Nevada, California, Wyoming, Utah, and
several other States were also smitten as heavily as
Pennsylvania and Montana for their sins in slaying
their friends the hawks and owls — allies which were
performing services worth millions sterling annually
and asking nothing in return, except an occasional
chicken when one of their kind was on the verge of
starvation or which had a nestful of hungry youngsters,
and the supply of rats and mice had temporarily proved
insufficient for their needs.

Riding with a farmer one day, we saw a large hawk
drop to the ground and rise with a partridge in its
talons. My friend shot at it and missed, but the hawk
dropped its prey. On examination it proved to be
a coqui partridge, blind with chicken-pox.

During twenty-five years' museum experience I
have examined the crops of a large number of hawks
of various species. The predominating food was rats,
mice, and grasshoppers. Only now and then the
remains of birds were found. The crops often
contained a curious assortment of creatures, chiefly
locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, termites (white ants),
and snakes. When locusts are abundant, hawks feed
almost exclusively on them.

vol. i. 177 I2

i78

THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT

Hawks may be classed as highly beneficial to man,
the larger hawks, such as the buzzards, much less so on
account of their disposition to attack and kill poultry.

The eagles are not of much economic value to man,
owing to their lamb and poultry destroying habits.
They kill off large numbers of rats, but their smaller
cousins the hawks, if left in peace, are capable of
keeping these rodents in check.

In the past the eagle acted as a natural check on
small antelopes, klip dassies, various rodent animals,
such as hares, game birds, etc. ; but such services are
not now required, and the larger eagles will in time
pass from the face of the earth.

Sir Boverton Redwood, speaking to the British
Science Guild in 19 14, said : " It is estimated that
the birds of Nebraska eat 170 cartloads of insects a
day; that those of Massachusetts destroy 21,000
bushels of insects daily ; and that a single species of
hawk saves the farmers of the Western States 175,000
dollars a year by destroying grasshoppers and field
mice. Yet millions of people wantonly kill birds that
destroy injurious and disease-spreading insects."

The moral of these facts applies to South Africa.

" You slay them all ! and wherefore ? For the gain
Of a scant handful, more or less, of wheat,
Or rye, or barley, or some other grain

Scratched up at random bv industrious feet
Searching for worm or weevil after rain !
Or a few cherries that are not so sweet
As are the songs these uninvited guests

Sing at their feast with comfortable breasts.1'

Longfellow.
179

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

BIRDS AND INSECTS

The well-known wire-worm and cockchafer grubs
are the larvae of beetles. They live chiefly in culti-
vated soil for three to five years before changing
into beetles. Meanwhile they are busy all the time
devouring the roots of crops and useful pasturage
plants. They attack all crops with the exception of
mustard; and in South Africa they feed all the year
round. We have no chemical or other agent by which
we can kill these grubs. A host of species of birds
feed on wire-worms, cut-worms, and cockchafer grubs.
Amongst others they are eagerly sought after by
rooks, hoopoes, starlings, thrushes, larks, plovers,
partridges, pheasants, quails, and guinea-fowls. When
the grubs are turned up by the harrow, plough, or
spade, a host of other species of birds pounce upon
and devour them.

It has to be remembered in cases of stomach examina-
tion that soft animal food is digested with great rapidity
and leaves few traces, whereas grain and seed remain in
evidence a much longer time.

The army moth is another dreaded South African
scourge. A vast army of moths settle by night upon
the succulent pasturage and lay their eggs. Presently
an uncountable host of caterpillars emerge from the
eggs and eat off the grass and crops as effectually as if
they had been burned by fire. They travel in a vast
army, eating every green blade and leaf before them.

The night jar and insectivorous bats prey upon
180

BIRDS AND tNSFXTS

the moths by night, and birds assemble from the
surrounding country and fall upon the caterpillars by
day.

Flocks of starlings attack and devour them in great
quantities. Even the seed-eating birds lend a hand
and dispose of hosts of them. Yet I have seen pot-
hunting boys and grown men go out and shoot a
double charge of shot into a flock of starlings engaged
in this magnificent work. The dead and crippled
birds are gathered up ; numbers of wounded escape
to die miserably, and the flock departs terror stricken
to another part of the country.

There are hundreds of species of weevils. They
are equally destructive in both the adult beetle and
larvae or grub stage. The larvae attack and voraciously
feed on peas, beans, and all kinds of grain, and the
beetles devour green crops, fruit trees, garden flowers,
and even invade the conservatories. They often strip
a tree bare of its buds, flowers, and shoots. When
birds assemble to feed on them, the untrained observer
declares the guilty parties are the birds, and forth-
with a brutal war of extermination is waged on our
allies.

In a single season a fruit grower of my acquaintance
lost /.700 from the ravages of weevils.

I have found weevils and their larvae, mostly the
former, in the stomachs of large numbers of South
African birds. Often the stomach contents were
90 per cent, weevils.

Starlings prey largely on them, and they are right
royally reinforced by thrushes, chats, sparrows, finches,

181

1. The Red-wing Starling, Spreeuw or Rooivlerk (Amydrus mono),

is a pest to the fruit grower. When no fruit is available, its
diet consists of insects and wild berries.

2. Verreaux's Glossy Starling {Pholidauges verreauxi). In the sun

this marvellously beautiful bird glitters like burnished copper,
with purple and violet reflections.
182

BIRDS AND tNSECTS

white eyeSj orioles, weavers, wagtails, sun birds, tits,
shrikes, bulbuls, and fly-catchers.

The aphides, otherwise known as plant lice or green
fly, do extensive damage to both cultivated and wild
plants.

In England the damage done to the hop fields in
a single season amounted to £1,750,000, with an addi-
tional expenditure of £200,000 to overcome the plague.
In South Africa the damage by insects is great,
and goes on from year to year, varying with the number
of bird enemies there happens to be in the locality.
With but very few exceptions the smaller birds prey
upon these rapidly breeding plant lice. Even the little
seed-eating birds, such as wax-bills, sparrows, finches,
and weavers, eat vast numbers.

Scale insects infest trees and plants to an alarming
degree. Their chief bird enemies are the woodpeckers,
tree-creepers, tits, and white eyes.

Caterpillars are the larvae of butterflies and moths.
Of the many hundreds of species of birds in South
Africa, there are not more than fifty species which do
not feed more or less on them when the opportunity
presents itself. With but very few exceptions the
smaller birds feed their young on soft-bodied insects.
I have found by actual examination that 90 per cent,
of the contents of the nestlings' stomachs consists of
small caterpillars.

Moths, gnats, and multitudes of other kinds of
flying insects are eaten by swifts, swallows, martins,
fly-catchers, night jars, wagtails, warblers, and an
army of other species of birds in a minor degree.

183

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The majority of species of moths and butterflies
lay their eggs in clusters on trees or other vegetation.
The much despised Cape sparrow and other seed-
eating birds, as well as a hundred other species of
small birds, are particularly fond of these eggs and the
newly hatched larvae, and the uninformed observer,
seeing them thus employed on his fruit or other trees,
hastily concludes they are devouring the young shoots,
buds, flowers, or fruit. Moths hide away by day and
issue forth at night to lay their eggs. It is the business
of birds to know where to search for these inveterate
enemies of man, and they perform their work well and
faithfully.

The little white eye (Zosterops), which associates in
small flocks of a dozen and more, makes a thoroughly
systematic search for the eggs and young larvae on
trees and shrubs, and the small amount of damage it
causes to soft, ripe fruit in an orchard does not amount
to more than 10 per cent, of the good it accomplishes
in clearing the orchard of a number of insect pests,
including the destructive fruit fly, unless, of course,
its numbers are abnormal.

On turning over the pages of a standard work on
economic entomology, the mind is bewildered and
staggered at the host of species of insects and allied
forms of life which prey upon man, his domestic
animals, and the produce of his lands.

Man is fighting against his insect enemies for his
very existence, and it is only by utilising the services
of trained entomologists, ornithologists, naturalists,
and other men of science that he will ultimately emerge

184

BIRDS AND INSECTS

victorious. At present the insect hosts are the strongest
allies of the Angel of Death. They sow disease and
death broadcast in his pathway through life. The
pitfalls they cause are so numerous and well concealed
that comparatively few people ultimately escape and
die peacefully of old age as Nature intends, in order
to gain the fullest earth experiences before entering
the next phase of life in the beyond. The insect
armies attack us at all points. They not only sow
deadly diseases amongst us and our domestic animals ;
they ravage and cripple us in a thousand other ways.
Our food supplies are reduced alarmingly by them.
They attack and destroy our timber, our dwellings,
our furniture, clothing, and even that poisonous
weed, tobacco. The nicotine of tobacco is one of
the most powerful poisons known to science, yet
there are certain beetles which thrive on prepared
tobacco leaves.

While our enemies the insects are slaying us and our
stock and cutting off our food supplies, we continue
to quarrel and wrangle among ourselves and strive
for place and power ; or live our little selfish lives,
snatching impotently at the will-o'-the-wisps of so-called
pleasure instead of combining and utilising our re-
sources and the trained minds of our men of science
to present a solid front against this terrible enemy
which is eating into our vitals.

Nay, more ! We persecute and destroy our
feathered allies which God in His wisdom has given
us to help fight our battles. If, perchance, we do
not actively persecute our bird friends and helpers,

i85

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

we remain stupidly indifferent to the effective striking
power of this ally in our unending war on insects.

The average layman does not, as a general rule,
observe accurately or reason overmuch on his observa-
tions. It is good enough for him to see a bird feeding
on his fruit, his grain, or his chickens to forthwith declare
war on all birds of the same species. Many farmers
can only distinguish a few species out of a hundred or
more. They class them merely as "small birds";
or, if belonging to the great bird of prey family, they
are " hawks " or " eagles." There are in South
Africa a few birds whose destructiveness is so apparent
that they stand condemned. An instance in point is
the coly or muis vogel (Colius). With the exception
of this species and a few others, it is essential to have
expert analysis of the contents of crops and stomachs
at different periods of the year before pronouncing
judgment on a bird. This work should be conducted
in the laboratory and in the field.

It is not only the suffering of the bird we are
trying to prevent ; it is the moral degradation of
the person who causes the suffering.

" And a town meeting was convened straightway
To set a price upon the guilty heads
Of these marauders, who in lieu of pay

Levied blackmail upon the garden beds
And corn-fields, and beheld without dismay

The awful scarecrow, with his fluttering shreds ;
The skeleton that waited at their feast,

Whereby their sinful pleasure was increased."

Longfellow.
186

1. Black-headed Oriole {Oriolus larval us).

2. Golden Oriole {Oriolus galbula).

The former is common in the bush-veld and forests of South Africa
at all times of the year. The latter migrates during the spring into
South Africa from Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. Both species are
greedy devourers of insects and their larvae. They are both efficient
policemen of the forests.

187

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

As man's knowledge of the great part played by
birds in safeguarding the forests, pasturage, cultivated
crops, and orchards increases, so will his indifference
to the welfare of these indispensable allies decrease.
So, too, will he eagerly seek by every means in his
power to conserve bird life when he realises more fully
how loyally birds are aiding him in his struggle against
insect-borne diseases which ravage his race and his
stock animals. What better way have we of imparting
this knowledge than by teaching economic natural
history in schools ? One wonders when men will
cease to struggle for place, power, and wealth, and
devote their time and energies to the betterment of
others of their race. If we really want to see South
Africa prosper, and if we desire to make it possible
for our children and our children's children to settle
down and make their living in the country, two out-
standing barriers must be removed : —

i. The diseases which attack man, his stock
animals and crops, must be attacked and conquered.

2. Economic natural history must be studied in
all its branches, and not only taught to school children ;
but measures of the most thorough and practical kind
must be taken to protect the natural enemies of the
hosts of foes which assail us, our animals, and our
products.

A teacher, after twenty years' experience, said :
" Nothing ever helped me so much to manage boys as
teaching kindness to animals."

188

NESTLING BIRDS AND THEIR FOOD

NESTLING BIRDS AND THEIR FOOD

Young birds grow rapidly, and consequently they

must have an abundance of food. When there is a

shortage of provender, the strongest bird in the nest

gets the greater bulk of the food, and its less robust

brothers and sisters

slowly weaken and

die.

There are many

tragedies in the

family life of birds.

The weather may
be cold and rainy,
and insects hard to
find. The parents
in their desperate
eagerness to feed
their hungry child-
ren neglect their own needs, and one or both perish.
In the^ latter instance, of course, the entire brood
inevitably dies. When one parent succumbs or is
slain by an unthinking boy, the other makes heroic
efforts to provide a sufficiency of food for the family ;
but notwithstanding its struggles, the majority of the
brood wilt and perish.

Young birds remain in the nest from little over a
week to several months, according to the species.
The average is from two weeks to a month. The
majority of birds, after leaving the nest, continue to

189

A Nestling Bird will eat its own weight of
nrubs in twenty- four hours.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

be fed by the parents until they are fully fledged and
have learned how to find and capture their own food.
The young of the secretary bird remain in the nest for
nearly six months until fully feathered, while those of
the English sparrow are out in about a week.

A nestling bird will eat its own weight of food
in twenty-four hours. Some kinds eat double their
weight in the same period. The young of the smaller
species of birds, such, for instance, as robins, warblers,
thrushes, etc., will eat 150 caterpillars, each 1 inch
long, in twelve hours, and then will be greedy for more.
A brood of birds consists in most instances of from
three to five youngsters. We will take four as the
average. If one young bird eats 1 50 caterpillars and
other kinds of insect pests in the course of one day,
the four will dispose of 600 daily. Add to this another
100 for the parents' sustenance, and we have 700
insect pests destroyed daily for about two months.
Therefore from the day the young hatch until they
are able to fend for themselves, a single family of
birds will destroy 42,000 insects. If these are true
insectivorous birds they will continue their daily war on
our insect enemies. Should they be of the seed-eating
kind, they will also continue to feed largely on various
forms of insects and allied noxious kinds of life,
although their staple food will consist of seeds. It
consequently rests with the individual farmer to use
his discretion. If the birds are attacking his corn in
phenomenal numbers he may be compelled to reduce
them to normal limits. If they, however, are not too
numerous it will pay him infinitely better to hire

190

NESTLING BIRDS AND THEIR FOOD

boys to patrol his corn lands when his grain is ripening
and until it is reaped and stored.

The young of game birds are active from birth,
and follow the mother after the manner of domestic
chicks. The parent may have a flock of as many as
fifteen or even more, as in the case of the guinea-fowl,
partridge, and quail. The number of " white ants,"

The Looper Caterpillar is picked
oft the twigs by the parent
birds and fed to their
babies.

The Bustard, the Partridge, and
other ground birds dig the
larvae of beetles out of the
ground and devour them.

insects, their larvae, and eggs which are devoured by
so large a brood of hungry youngsters can easily be
imagined. The young of game birds grow at about
the same rate as the young of farmyard fowls. They
breed during the spring and summer seasons when
insect pests are at their zenith of destructiveness, and
yet, notwithstanding the incalculable services rendered,
we shoot them down for " sport " and the pot. I
have watched parent birds visiting their young with
insect food, and on an average small birds, such as

191

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

thrushes, starlings, weavers, and warblers, brought
food 150 times in a day of sixteen hours. On calm,
warm, cloudy days, when insects were especially active,
the parents visited the nest as often as 320 times.

An examination of the crops of the young revealed
the fact that for every beneficial insect there were ninety-
five noxious ones. It is by no means good enough to

The masses of Insects' Eggs on twigs are picked oft
and eaten by birds.

strictly preserve certain kinds of birds and leave others
without any measure of protection, for the reason that
each species of bird has its likes and dislikes in regard
to food. Some birds feed their young on certain
species of insects which another bird will pass by as
unpalatable. For instance, I have observed the fiskal
fly-catcher (Sigelus silens) feed its young on a certain
hairy caterpillar that no other bird would touch. It
will therefore be realised that it is not sufficient to
protect the purely insectivorous birds only. An army
is composed of many regiments, and each has its

192

1. Masked Weaver Bird {Hyphantornis velatus). Weaver birds subsist

largely on insects during the summer, and feed their young on
them. During the winter months they live mostly on grain, and
seeds of grasses and weeds.

2. Black Widow Finch {Hypochera funerea) of the eastern side of South

Africa from Natal to the Niger.

3. Paradise Widow Bird ( Vidua paradisea). Male in summer plumage.

4. Pin-tailed Widow Bird ( Vidua principalis) in nuptial dress. He loves

to flit in zigzag fashion over and around the lady of his choice.

VOL. I.

J93

13

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

special duties to perform in war. So it is with the
various regiments (species) of birds in their endless
war on the insect army. During the time of the
year when their services are in special request, birds
are most active in their war of extermination of the
insect hosts. Yet we stupidly admire the feathers of
wild birds in ladies' hats, and encourage our boys to
collect birds' eggs. A farmer, whose son or Kafir
employee robs a nest of its contents or kills a pair of
breeding birds, leaves unslain at least 20,000 insect
pests which rapidly mature on his succulent crops.
Half of these are females. In a few days after their
emergence from the chrysalis each of these deposits
from 500 to 10,000 eggs on his crops, pasturage, and
trees. The eggs hatch in a few hours or days, and a
host of caterpillars emerge to begin feeding voraciously.
Thus within a period of two months the destruction
of a single pair of breeding birds, their eggs, or young,
results in an active ravening army of more than a million
caterpillars or other forms of insect larvae. Verily,
I say, we have eyes, but we see not ; ears, but we hear
not ; brains, but we reason not. The house fly, the
blood-sucking fly, and the mosquito sow disease and
death broadcast amongst us and our stock animals,
yet we persecute the birds which destroy these flies.
The wagtail, the fly-catcher, the swallow, swift, and
martin devour flies and mosquitoes wholesale ; we
calmly stand by while our boys and the coloured
children destroy these eminently useful birds' nests or
rob them of their contents.

Reckoning the time it takes for a bird to digest
194

NESTLING BIRDS AND THEIR FOOD

flies, I worked it out, and have ascertained that a
single fly-catcher, wagtail, swallow, or martin will
dispose of from 200 to 300 flies in a single day. This

The Gape of the Night Jar. This bird hawks its prey on the
wing at night. With a single snap it shears off the
wings of a moth and swallows its egg-laden body.

The night jar is provided with a wide gape for capturing
insects in the air.

is from a study of the stomach contents at various
periods of the daylight hours. I have watched fly-
catchers at work feeding their young, and they have
made as many as 450 journeys to their nest in the
course of a day with food for their young. Half these
flies are females. A female house fly lays 120 eggs

l9S

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

at a time, and the entire life cycle from egg to grub
and chrysalis and the emergence of a full-grown fly
is only a fortnight ; therefore every female fly will
produce 120 more flies in a little over two weeks from
the day she emerges from the chrysalis. If a female
fly escapes destruction in the spring, and if allowed to
breed unchecked, then the progeny of that single fly will
amount to something like 6,488,560,000,000 before
the chills of winter appear. The familiar wagtail,
which loves to dwell in cities and villages and around
homesteads, feeds its young largely on flies, their
grubs, and chrysalides, and yet we permit our
children to rob its nest or murder it with a cata-
pult or air-gun. We rear cats because we are too
" tender hearted " and sentimental to painlessly kill
them when born. We think we are doing a kind-
ness when we give these kittens away. We
would pause and reflect if we knew that the great
majority of these kittens grew up into hungry,
mangy cats, whose chief diet consisted of our allies
the birds.

I have watched the nests of warblers, fly-catchers,
weavers, larks, starlings, sun birds, and numbers of
others for an hour at a time during varying periods
of the day. From these observations it was shown the
parents brought insect food to the young about twenty
times an hour. Sometimes the number of visits were
less, but as often as not they were over twenty. The
parent birds often bring two, three, and often more
caterpillars at a time ; but, taking one as the average,
and twelve working hours, we have a total of 240

196

NESTLING BIRDS AND THEIR FOOD

caterpillars and other destructive larvae fed to a single
brood of young birds daily.

The caterpillar, the cut-worm, wire-worm, other
grubs, and the hundreds of other units which make
up the legions of insect pests which strive with man
for the possession of mother earth, work more or less
unseen. On the contrary, the bird is visible to the
dullest observer. Consequently the damage some
birds do is glaringly noticeable, but invariably grossly
exaggerated. Being unaware of the extent of the
ravages of the hidden insect pests, man fails to realise
that the services rendered by our feathered police
and soldiers usually outweigh the damage some of
them do by twenty or even fifty to one.

In every country throughout the world where
birds have been systematically destroyed, or where no
active measures have been taken for their preservation,
the results have always been the same : —

1. Insect and vermin plagues.

2. Grave losses to crops of all kinds.

3. The impotence of man in checking the

plagues.

4. Efforts to bring back the birds.

It is not unusual to find crops injured by insect
pests to the extent of 25 to 50 per cent. Ponder it
well. At least 25 per cent, of the country's crops,
stock, timber, and other products goes into the stomachs
of insects and their allies, while we callously permit
the feathered enemies of these foes of the human race

197

'.j^S^ r^ &^

/ iBate^ff^|t ;\

£*i1

1. Common Waxbill, or Rooibeckie {Estrilda astrildd). A favourite

cage bird.

2. South African Ruddy Waxbill, or Robin {Lagonosticta rubricate?).

The Waxbills feed on the seeds of weeds and grasses. They also
eat a considerable number of insects and their eggs.

3. The dainty Scaly-feathered Weaver {Sporopipes squamifrons).

I98

NESTLING BIRDS AND THEIR FOOD

to be murdered and otherwise persecuted. But ! you
exclaim, we in South Africa have placed the majority
of our birds under the protection of the law ! Yes, so
we have in some districts, but does the law afford them
any protection ? Is there any special machinery for
the enforcement of the law ? Are there special police
whose duty it is to see that our feathered friends get
the protection to which they are entitled ? No !
little or no effort is made to enforce the laws. The
average policeman does not know one bird from
another, and he cares less.

How blind we are. How stupidly short-sighted.
If a man shoots a hare or a buck out of season, the
sleuths of the law are keen on his track, and sooner
or later run him to earth. Yet these animals are
vermin. Let a man shoot a hare or a buck in the
close season. What occurs ? His neighbours at
once raise a howl of indignation, and clamour furiously
for the police to prosecute him. Those same people
give their sons air-guns or shot-guns and applaud them
when they shoot our bird allies. They encourage them
to make collections of birds' eggs. They take no
measures to prevent Kafir umfaans on their farms and
estates from taking the plump young birds from their
nests and eating them. This latter practice is general
throughout South Africa. I know from twenty years'
experience as a field naturalist.

199

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

HOW TO ENCOURAGE BIRDS TO
BREED

To encourage birds to breed on a farm, an estate,
in a forest, or in parks, the first essential is to see to it
that they are not persecuted in any way whatsoever.
Then their habits require to be studied. Every
species of bird has its likes and dislikes in regard to
the situation and environment of its nest. Many
species of eminently useful insectivorous birds build

in dense thickets, others

in scrub, and so on.

Knowing this, the wise

) farmer will leave patches

^^d^y of bush, scrub, bracken,

and other forms of cover

The Mother Bird feeds her greedy • • 11, 1 i

children on soft caterpillars in various sheltered places

from the farmers' crops. on his farm.

When there is an
insufficiency of natural cover, or when the trees
are not suitable, as is the case in most orchards
and timber plantations, it is necessary to make
nesting boxes and attach them to the trees. These
may be prepared from any kind of wood and
covered with bark to make them look natural and
inviting to the birds. The best way is to bore out
sections of tree stems. Those species of birds which
build saucer or cup-shaped nests will require little open
boxes like trays. Those which build nests with a side
entrance will at once be attracted to a nesting box with

200

HOW TO ENCOURAGE BIRDS TO BREED

a side entrance near the bottom, at the middle, or
close to the top. Nesting boxes may be placed about
the homestead, in sheltered places, on outhouses,
under the eaves, etc. Care should be taken to affix
them in situations out of the reach of rats. It is
highly desirable to encourage owls to breed, and
suitable nesting boxes should always be provided for
them. Rats and mice play appalling havoc to crops,
other produce, and young plantations ; and owls are
their chief enemies. It is therefore a wise policy
to take every possible measure to protect owls and
encourage them to breed. The boxes should resemble
cavities in the tree trunks, and ought to be placed high
up on the stem or at the bases of the large branches.

Municipal and Government authorities would do
well to put an abundance of nesting boxes high up on
the trunks of trees in all public plantations to encourage
owls, woodpeckers, and other feathered policemen of
the forests to come and breed. Swallows and martins
are of the utmost possible economic value. They may
be encouraged to breed around the homestead by
providing suitable covering from rain and wind under
which they can build their nests of mud.

It is advisable to have nesting boxes placed in
position a good while in advance of the nesting season.
Birds begin building on the advent of spring, so the
boxes ought to be put up during the winter to allow
the birds to get accustomed to them. Fix the boxes
in the most sheltered spot possible away from direct
sunlight and strong wind and drifting rain. No
nesting material should be put inside the boxes. A

201

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

little sawdust or dry earth is all that is necessary. The
boxes should be screwed very firmly to the tree trunk
from 6 to 10 feet above ground for small birds.
See that they are out of reach of cats and tree snakes.
Branches of the thorny mimosa nailed below or round
the box will help to keep cats off.

Crocheted Ball filled with cotton
batting and feathers, with short
lengths of yarn, string, and
horse - hair added, for nest
building.

Nesting Boxes like this one may
be placed on poles, trees, or
under the eaves of houses.

The upper part of the box should incline slightly
forward. Boxes ought not to be too near together,
and the birds should not be disturbed while nesting.
The boxes should vary in shape. Some birds prefer
deep boxes, and others medium or shallow.

The tree-hole boxes are bored in the solid wood.
The lids of closed nesting boxes should be hinged
or screwed so that they may be easily opened for
a yearly cleaning.

202

HOW TO ENCOURAGE BIRDS TO BREED

Stray cats should be poisoned or shot, and a
constant warfare waged on rats, as these canines
and rodents play havoc with birds.

Apart from the economic aspect
of the matter, people ought to take
the greatest pleasure in preparing
and putting up nesting boxes for
birds, so that they may be en-
couraged to settle down and rear
their families in the neighbourhood
of homesteads. The presence of
birds with their cheery song and
happy, bright ways do much to
lessen the feeling of solitude and
loneliness of dwellers on farms. Any
boy or man who is at all handy can
easily make nesting boxes with little
or no expense. The great essential is
to make them after the manner of the
actual nest. The outward appearance
need not be imitated. For instance,
birds which build open saucer-shaped
nests will not rear their young in
closed nesting boxes with a hole at
the side; nor will those species of birds
which build domed nests take to open nesting boxes.

Gourds cut in half, and others left entire with a
sufficiently large hole bored in the side, make good
nesting boxes. Jam, meat, and fish tins, as well as
small boxes, may be utilised. Boxes may be made
from odd bits of wood and tree bark.

V Cat-Proof Nesting
Box. The pole is
surrounded by a
funnel-shaped
piece of zinc, in-
verted.

203

1. Dufresne's Waxbill, or See-see {Estrilda dufresnii), which inhabits the

eastern side of South Africa. Male.

2. Orange-breasted Waxbill, or Zebra Waxbill {Estrilda subflavd), which

frequents the grass lands and margins of streams.

3. Blue-breasted Waxbill, or Cordon Bleu of bird fanciers {Estrilda

angolensis). T . . . . .

4. Grenadine, or Violet-ear Waxbill {Estrilda grenatina). It inhabits the

western side of South Africa. The male is exquisitely coloured.
These waxbills feed on the seeds of weeds and grasses, supplemented
by insects, their larvae, and eggs.

204

HOW TO ENCOURAGE BIRDS TO BREED

Some forethought is necessary in choosing suitable
places for the nesting boxes. A situation must be
chosen which provides security against sun, wind, rain,
and bird enemies. No exact dimensions are necessary
for bird boxes. Anyone of average intelligence will
know fairly well, from a study of the birds for which
the boxes are intended, what size the nesting boxes
ought to be. The most important requirements are
the size of the entrance hole, the situation, and the
environment. The hole must be sufficiently large to
admit the birds comfortably.

The following directions by Edward Howe Forbush,
of the State Department of Agriculture of Massa-
chusetts, are clear and concise, and we cannot do
better than reproduce them verbatim : —

i. Let the roof be made tight, and overhang
the entrance far enough to carry rain clear and keep
the sun from shining in on the young.

" 2. Do not make the bottom of the box too
tight. If any rain drives in, it should run out.

"3. If the box tips forward a little on the side
of the entrance hole when set in place, it will shed
rain well. It should never lean backward.

" 4. Provide a way of opening the box quickly,
even if you intend to burn it, and replace it after the
first season, as is done sometimes with gourds and
shingle or bark boxes. It will be necessary from time
to time to open the box for cleaning or for evicting
gipsy moths and other pests or vermin.

5. Make the entrance hole and the box itself
205

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

just large enough for the bird you want — no larger.
This will tend to keep out larger birds as well as the
birds' enemies, will give the bird a better chance to
defend its home, and will save material.

" 6. Make nesting boxes of weathered wood, or
paint or stain them with coloured linseed oil of a
neutral tint resembling dead wood or bark, or put them
up in the fall that they may become weather stained

Old tins securely fixed to poles or
branches make good nesting
places for birds.

The bored out section of
a tree trunk makes a
nice nesting box.

before spring. Apparently birds are less suspicious
of such boxes than of those made of new, bright
lumber, but they have been known to use the newest
of the new.

" 7. Fix nesting boxes on buildings or on poles
rather than on trees, and make them inaccessible to
cats, squirrels, mice, rats, and snakes.

" 8. When it seems best to put them in trees,
choose isolated trees which can be protected against
cats, squirrels, weasels, etc.

" 9. Ordinarily ventilation is unnecessary if the
206

1. Taha Bishop Bird {Pyromelana tahd) in summer plumage. Flitting

amongst the reeds and rushes, this Bishop Bird is strikingly
beautiful. ** J

2. Black and Yellow Bishop Bird, or Yellow Kafir Fink {Pyromelana

capensis), which haunts the reed beds, weed patches, and long
grass. Winter plumage.

3. Black and Yellow Bishop Bird {Pyromelana capensis). In nuptial

plumage.

4. Paradise Widow Bird {Vidua paradisea) in drab winter plumage.

207

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

entrance is near the top of the box, as it should be ;
but in very hot summers young birds are believed to
have died of heat in unshaded boxes mounted on
poles. Ventilation may be provided by boring four
i-inch holes in the sides of the box near the top and
filling them with corks, which may be removed in
extremely hot weather.

10. It is best to clean out the boxes each
autumn, burning the old nesting material to destroy
dirt and vermin, and putting in a little chaff, dry grass,
or coarse sawdust as a foundation for a new nest."

A few practical details in regard to carrying out
some of the above rules should be noted : —

If the roof of a nesting box, made of wood, is
horizontal, the water will stand on it, and even if
painted it will warp somewhat in drying unless heavily
coated with good roof paint, or covered with zinc,
some good roofing felt, or other waterproof material.
It is well to have a cross piece nailed (with clinch
nails) across the grain on the under side to prevent
warping and splitting. If the top slopes downward
at an angle of 45 degrees or less, and is well painted,
the water will run off so fast that the roof will not
warp much.

" Top, side, or front of the box may be hinged
to open as a door, or fixed to fasten by means of nails,
easily removed, slid loosely into sockets bored for
them. White pine from J to | of an inch thick is
the best lumber. Cedar and cypress are durable.
Grocery or dry-goods' boxes may be used."

208

HOW TO ENCOURAGE BIRDS TO BREED

It is unwise to nail boxes to timber trees, as the
nails in time become overgrown by the wood and
cause damage to saws and planing machinery. The
boxes in these instances may be fastened to flat boards
and screwed on to the trees. Another plan is to
attach them to poles or fasten them with wires in the
forks of branches. Nesting boxes should be covered
with bark. Failing this, they may be
stained or painted more or less the
colour of the tree trunk or what-
ever base they may happen to be
attached to.

To puzzle bird enemies, such as
cats, squirrels, and snakes, nesting
boxes may be suspended from
branches with wire.

If the situation and environment
of the nesting boxes are suitable,

birds will SOOn take possession of Crocheted Ball filled
, -iiii Tx. £ ' u with raw cotton,

them, provided the locality furnishes feathers> elc ? for

a sufficiency of insect food. Water is lining nests.

a necessity, and unless this is obtain-
able in the neighbourhood, drinking and bathing
receptacles should be provided. On many South
African farms the only water supply is from tanks,
and it cannot be expected that birds will build in such
an environment unless some provision is made for them
by constructing shallow bathing and drinking troughs
or basins. These can easily be made with concrete.
Another aid in inducing birds to rear their young
near a homestead is to provide nesting material, such
vol. i. 209 14

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

as hay, straw, cotton, hair, feathers, and string. The
string should be cut into small pieces of 6 to 1 2 inches
in length. These materials can be scattered about
near the nesting boxes, or hung in bundles on fences
or on branches of trees.

In countries where the common European sparrow
occurs, it is often necessary to make war on them
when they are too abundant, owing to their habit

Crocheted Bag filled with suet,
attached to board, then
fixed to tree.

Suet tied to a branch.

of monopolising the nesting boxes. They often wait
until a pair of useful birds have built a cosy nest in a
box, and then boldly and impudently take possession
of it. Eminently useful birds are driven from the
neighbourhood in this way. The Cape sparrow or
mossie does the same, only to a much lesser degree,
owing probably to natural building sites being
abundant.

During the cold winter months birds may be
kept in the vicinity of a homestead by judicious feeding.
Insects are comparatively scarce in winter, and unless

210

HOW TO ENCOURAGE BIRDS TO BREED

this diet is supplemented, the great majority of the
birds will be forced to migrate elsewhere. Birds
which are fed during times of food scarcity almost
always remain and breed in the neighbourhood, and
unless persecuted they will spend their lives there.

A special feeding place should be chosen in a
sunny situation sheltered from winds.
The birds will soon find the spot and
assemble from all over the neigh-
bourhood to feed. As time goes on,
greater numbers will be attracted,
until there will be enough birds to
exterminate the species of insects and
allied forms of life which prey on the
scanty winter vegetation. The birds
during the winter months do not con-
fine themselves to capturing active
adult insects. They seek out and
devour the eggs and chrysalides of
insects — the eggs which otherwise
would have hatched when the crops
were young and succulent in the
spring-time, and the chrysalides from
which adult insects would have
emerged on the advent of warmer weather. Half of
these insects would have been females capable of laying
from a hundred to many thousands of eggs, according
to the species. Apart, therefore, from the joy the pre-
sence of birds around our homesteads afford us, it is
highly advantageous, from an economic point of view,
to encourage birds to stay on farms in winter-time.

211

Basket filled with
loose string,
wood fibres or
grass for nest
building.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

A*

'1

A good feeding station may be made by erecting
a platform on poles, or suspended from a tree, and roofed
with reeds, rushes, or thatch. If a 6-inch board is nailed
around the four sides of the platform, the food will
not be blown off by wind, and the roof will prevent
it getting wet. Any sorts of small seeds, chaff, finely
crushed mealies, coarse meal, broken
sunflower seeds, scraps of bread,
vegetables, and in fact any soft edible
substance, whether animal or veget-
able, would provide good winter food
for birds.

Instead of a platform, a clearing
may be made on the ground for the
food. The disadvantage of this,
however, is — rats and mice have
access to it.

When a natural water supply is
not within reasonable distance, water
must be provided. A dearth of water
in summer often induces birds to
attack soft, juicy fruits.
Swallows and martins are amongst the finest of insect
killers. They take the mature insects on the wing,
whereas the majority of other birds feed on the larvae.
In destroying adult female insects they eliminate the
potential mothers of untold hosts of larvae, hence
every possible effort should be made to encourage
them to breed on farms. To accomplish this desirable
end, suitable nesting boxes should be affixed on the
walls and roof of the homestead and outhouses, and

212

H!*W

:L

A Pan of mud and
another of water
for the use of
swallows and
martins in nest
building.

1. Sundevall's Seed-eater {Serinus scotops).

2. Streaky-headed Seed-eater (Poliospiza gularis).

3. Seed-eater (Serinus flaviventris). The seed-eaters feed on the seeds

and berries of shrubs, and of grasses and weeds, supplemented
by insects, their larvae, and eggs.

4. Cape Canary (Serinus canicollis), the favourite cage bird of South

Africa.

213

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

also on poles out on the lands. The majority of the
many species of swallows and martins build nests of
mud, and unless there are muddy puddles in the near
neighbourhood, these must be provided. A shallow
dish of water and another of mud will fulfil all their
requirements if they are replenished as often as needful.
A shallow puddle of mud is the best. This can be kept
from drying up by fixing a water barrel or other
receptacle at the edge, and allowing the tap to drip.

DESTRUCTIVE BIRDS

Owing to the reduction of their natural enemies
and an abundant supply of insects, certain species of
granivorous and frugivorous birds breed and multiply
so rapidly that they constitute a serious menace to
the farmer. Those which are specially apt to increase
unduly are the Cape sparrow, weaver, bishop, and
widow birds. These are, with the exception of the
sparrows, popularly termed " vinks." They often
assemble in vast flocks and attack the ripening grain
in the fields and do serious damage. I have seen
large fields of wheat and millet completely destroyed
by them. In these instances it is necessary to consider-
ably reduce their numbers. Destroying their nestlings
has been strongly advocated and is often practised.
This is a wrong policy, because the birds at this period
are at the zenith of their usefulness. When the fields

214

DESTRUCTIVE BIRDS

are not extensive, the birds can be kept off by Kafir
boys beating tins, cracking whips, or springing a
rattle, such as those used in former days by policemen,
only somewhat larger.

When the wheat fields are extensive these measures
usually fail, and it becomes necessary to destroy the
birds by gun and poison. When the latter method is
practised the greatest possible care should be taken
to so place the poisoned grain that the troublesome
birds only will have access to it, or at least so as to
reduce the risk to a minimum of useful birds being
poisoned. If the poisoned grain is spread out on
platforms there is very little risk of beneficial ground
birds eating it. Another method is to make large,
shallow frames without a bottom, cover them with a
wire mesh sufficiently coarse to allow the " vinks " to
get through, then strew the poisoned grain on the
ground and cover it with these crates. All uneaten
grain should be buried or burned. The term " vink "
is often specially applied to the widow and bishop birds.

The fruit crop is often preyed upon by colies or
muis vogels {Colid<e), bulbuls {Cratero-podida\ red-
winged starlings or rooivlerk, glossy starlings, and
often by the little white eye (Zosterbps).

Although the colies and bulbuls destroy numbers
of insects, yet they are essentially fruit-eating birds,
and undoubtedly play havoc in orchards, and are, in
consequence, a serious pest to the fruit grower. When
fruit is scarce they, especially the colies, will attack
ripe, soft vegetables, such as pumpkins, marrows, and
tomatoes. Poisoning, trapping, and shooting with

215

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216

DESTRUCTIVE BIRDS

air-guns are the best means of destroying them.
When a shot-gun is discharged in an orchard,
useful insectivorous birds are terrified to such an
extent that they flee in wild alarm and often do not
return.

The red-winged and glossy starlings, although by
Nature insectivorous birds, have become confirmed
fruit-eaters, and they often do extensive damage to
fruit in the orchards. Otherwise these starlings
render excellent service in destroying insects.

The little white eye is one of our finest insect-
eaters, and it performs services of a special kind.
It creeps through the bushes and trees, carefully
scrutinising every leaf, twig, and shoot in search of
the eggs and young larvae of insects. It, however, does
damage to soft, ripe fruits, but its depredations are
usually not serious to the fruit grower. When, of
course, a man has only a few fruit trees, a small flock
of these birds will make serious inroads on his limited
supply of fruit.

It is not the purpose of this book to detail all the
ways and means of destroying birds which may do more
harm than good to individual farmers. Should any
particular bird become troublesome, and if its natural
habits are not known, a letter of inquiry should be
sent to the nearest public museum asking for the
desired information. Then if the farmer, after weigh-
ing the evidence for and against, is convinced the bird
is more destructive than beneficial to him, he should
take the most efficient measures he is able to devise
to reduce its numbers. If he is in doubt as to

217

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

what course to pursue in getting rid of the pest,
he is advised to write to the Agricultural Depart-
ment of the Government of the country he is
resident in.

TO POISON GRAIN-EATING BIRDS

Take two heaped teaspoonfuls of finely powdered
strychnine ; take two to three, or even four, gallons
of water in an old paraffin tin ; add 10 lbs. of sugar,
brown or white, and boil until consistency of very
thin cream. Take the syrup so made ; sprinkle the
powdered strychnine into it. The poison will not
dissolve, so stir until you think the whole mixture is
thoroughly permeated with strychnine. Now, pour
the poisoned syrup on to small quantities of finely
crushed mealies or wheat, and stir and mix well until
the particles of grain are coated with a thin covering
of the syrup. Leave it to dry, and it is ready.

Three gallons of syrup will mix two sugar bags
full of crushed grain, and this will be enough to kill
all the birds for one season. In putting down the
bait, mix it with chaff or other grain.

Be careful : it is a deadly concoction.

218

NOTES ON NESTS, EGGS, AND YOUNG

NOTES ON NESTS, EGGS, AND
YOUNG OF BIRDS

There are two great divisions of birds, viz., those
whose young are helpless at birth and for a longer or
a shorter time afterwards, and those whose young are
active from birth and can look after and feed them-
selves. The former are known as altricial, such for
instance as starlings, weavers, hawks, herons, etc.
The great majority of birds belong to this division.
The other division is known as the prascocial, and chief
among them are domestic fowls, partridges, plovers,
and ducks. The altricial birds, with the exception
of a few parasitical species, such as cuckoos, make a
nest of one kind or another. Some nests are merely
slight depressions on the ground, like those of the
crowned lapwing and plovers, for instance ; while
others, such as those of the doves and pigeons, are
merely loose bundles of twigs. Others, again, build
the most elaborate nests.

The shape and situation of the nest is, in the
majority of instances, determined by weather condi-
tions, enemies, and food supply. The great majority
of birds raise only one brood annually. A few species,
such as the familiar Cape wagtail (Motacilla capensis),
rear several broods during the course of the spring
and summer seasons. In the world of birds, as with
plant life, there is a systematic round or plan of life.
At the best time of year for the purpose the birds
build their nests, lay their eggs, and rear their young.

219

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

When this strenuous and all-important business is
over, they moult and migrate to distant countries,
retire to winter quarters, or go to other parts of the
country where food is most plentiful at this season
of the year. Some species live in the same environ-
ment throughout the year. Birds always select
localities for nest building where food
is plentiful. The time chosen for
rearing the young will always coincide
with the time the favourite food is at
its greatest abundance. During the
spring and early summer the trees
are putting on foliage, grass and
other plant life is growing rapidly,
and the crops are young and tender.
Consequently it is at these times
that tree and plant destroying insects
are most abundant, and these enemies
of plant life furnish the birds with
ample nourishment for their children
and themselves. Birds work so hard
when rearing their young that they
require twice and three times as much food as they
do at other periods of the year.

It will be noticed that some species of birds build
their nests in the very early spring ; others a little
later; while other sorts build at varying periods during
the spring and summer. The time is determined by
the character of the food and its abundance at these
various times of the year. For instance, when cater-
pillars are plentiful, the birds which feed their young

The Chrysalis of the
Butterfly strapped
to a twig is a dainty
morsel for a bird.

220

1. The Cinnamon-backed Pipit (Anthus pyrrhonotus) subsists on insects

which it captures on the ground.

2. Orange-throated Lark, Long-claw, Cape Lark or Cut-throat Lark

(Macronyx capensis). A large and handsome policeman of the
veld.

3. Red-capped Lark {Tephrocorys cinered), also known as the Inkelde

Leeuwerk. Common on the veld all over South Africa. Feeds
on insects.

221

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

on this class of food breed at that time. I made a
large number of observations in this connection, and
found that the nestlings of the majority of the smaller
birds were hatching from the eggs at the time the
species of caterpillars which formed the bulk of their
food were very young. These caterpillars provided
the small and delicate young birds with the very food
needed at this critical period of their lives. As they
grew older and more robust, they required a greater
quantity of food, and the caterpillars, which by this
time had grown considerably, furnished exactly what
was needful. A few species of birds rear their young
in the winter. The sugar bird (Promerops) of South
Africa is an example. The proteas and the aloes
flower in the winter, and these birds feed their nestlings
largely on the insects which infest the flowers of these
plants.

THE EGGS

The eggs of the majority of small birds hatch in
from twelve to fourteen days. Those of the larger
birds vary considerably, according to the species.
The time for incubation usually ranges from fourteen
days to a month. Many species of hawks take from
twenty-one to twenty-eight days, and various of the
duck tribe thirty days. Large birds, such as the
ostrich and emu, take five to six weeks. When the

222

Plate V — (1) Green Coucal (Centhmochares australis).

(2) West African Coucal {Centhmochares acrens).
The Coucal is a devourer of hairy caterpillars, beetles, grass-
hoppers and other insect vermin.

THE EGGS

nest is robbed at the time the hen bird is laying, or
before she begins to sit, in many instances she will
lay a second clutch, and often several batches if the
eggs are removed from the nest when laid. I have
never yet observed any species of bird produce a second
clutch of eggs after being robbed of her first clutch
on which she had been sitting. When all the eggs
are removed, very few species of birds will lay a second
clutch in the same nest. A clutch of eggs is a full
set, and they range from one to about twenty, according
to the species of bird. The birds (praecocial) whose
young are active and do not remain in the nest after
birth, usually, but by no means always, produce far
more eggs than those (altricial) whose young are help-
less and remain in the nest for a longer or shorter
period. The Cape gannet, which lays one egg, is an
instance of the former; and certain species of fran-
colins, which lay up to twenty eggs in a clutch, are
examples of the latter. Moreover, the young of
praecocial birds do not require nearly so much care
on the part of the parents as do the birds of the altricial
division. The size of the egg usually depends upon
the size of the bird, but not always. The eggs of the
Cape thrush (Turdus olivaceus), for instance, are
larger than the majority of the eggs of birds of similar
size, but these are exceptions to the general rule.
The colour of the egg is caused by pigment which is
deposited on it when the shell is forming within the
bird. In some birds the colours are in the shell
substance and on the surface. This is due to the
deposition of the colour during the whole time the shell

223

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

is being formed. Sometimes the variation in colour
is due to an access of carbonate of lime being deposited
on the shell, as instanced in many sea birds' eggs.

The colouring and markings on birds' eggs are
certainly, in the great majority of instances, for the
purpose of rendering them less conspicuous to enemies.
The reptilian ancestors of birds laid white eggs, as
they do to-day, and buried or otherwise hid them.
Many species of birds which lay white eggs cover
them up when they leave the nest. The doves and
pigeons have white eggs which are very conspicuous
lying in their flimsy bed of twigs, but both sexes of
these birds assist in the incubation process, and
consequently the eggs are seldom exposed.

The colour and markings, for instance, of plovers'
and lapwings' eggs render them so inconspicuous that
it is extremely difficult to see them even when close
at hand and within full view. The eggs of birds
which nest in holes are usually white. There are
many exceptions, however. Some of the South African
species of starlings which nest at the ends of deep
holes in banks produce blue eggs. Again, many of
the weavers, bishop, and widow birds build domed
nests, and the eggs are not visible to enemies, yet
the majority of them have coloured and spotted eggs.
The causes of the coloration of birds' eggs need a
great deal more study before we can dogmatise on the
subject.

Eggs vary a good deal in shape. Those of
many birds which deposit their eggs on rocks and
ledges of cliffs are shaped in such a way that they

224

THE YOUNG BIRD

do not roll off. When blown by the wind they may
move, but they remain on the same spot. Such eggs
are pyriform. The conical eggs of plovers, snipe,
etc., lie in the nest with the small end inwards. Packed
thus they take up the minimum amount of space, and
can be fully covered by the parent bird. Other kinds
of eggs are elliptical and spherical.

When the chick hatches, the parent bird carries
the broken shell some distance and drops it. A few
species of birds simply cast it out of the nest.

THE YOUNG BIRD

The young of praecocial birds, of which the game
birds are examples, although active from birth, are
unable to fly. They are covered with a thick, warm
coat of down, and one or both parents lead them
about in search of food. When alarmed they instantly
scatter and, crouching on the ground, as immovable
as a pebble they wait until the danger is past. The
mother bird employs many ingenious ruses to lead the
enemy away from the vicinity of her brood. She
pretends to be crippled and flutters away, or runs to a
distance with head low, and then, exposing her body,
she flutters her wings and cries shrilly to endeavour
to deceive the enemy into the belief the young are
with her, or to lead it to think she is unable to fly.
When a bird of prey appears overhead, the mother
vol. i. 225 15

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

usually utters a low cry of warning, and she and the
brood instantly flatten themselves down and remain
perfectly still. The bird of prey, although exceed-
ingly keen sighted, is always on the lookout for a
moving object ; and the instant it detects a rodent,
a bird, or any other likely form of prey, it drops on it
like a stone. Young ground-frequenting birds know
instinctively that their best chance of escaping observa-
tion is to remain perfectly still. The young of ducks
and other aquatic birds take to the water and swim
and dive without any training by the parent. When
alarmed the mother duck instantly leads her brood
into the midst of reeds, rushes, and other cover. If
on a lagoon or lake, she often takes them as far from
land as possible. I suddenly surprised a wild duck
in a quiet river pool. The moment she observed me
she emitted a warning " quack " and dived, followed
by her brood. The mother and young seemed to
disappear at one and the same moment. They
evidently swam under the water and came to the
surface in the midst of the rushes near the bank, for
I saw no more of them. On another occasion I
encountered a red-knobbed coot (Fulica cristatd) on
a river pool. The disappearance of herself and
brood under water was practically instantaneous.
There was a momentary glimpse, and nothing
more.

The young of this division of birds feed very
largely on insect life which infests the ground and
play havoc with vegetation. The economic value of
the young so-called game birds is simply incalculable.

1. Rufous Long-billed Lark {Certhilauda rufula) which seeks its insect

prey on the ground in open and stony localities.

2. Bar-tailed Lark, or Clapart Leeuwerk {Mirafra apiata).

The various species of larks are Nature's policemen of the veld, giving
their services gratis, for they do not levy any toll on the products of man.
In return for these services, the children of men are allowed to shoot them
for amusement, and rob their nests.

227

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Yet, curious and strange to say, this class of bird is
only afforded a certain measure of protection for the
one and only purpose of freeing it from persecution
sufficiently long to enable it to incubate its eggs and
rear its young until they are large enough to be shot
for sport. I have gone carefully into the matter, and
find that the services of the majority of game birds
are each worth at least £20 a year to man as insect
destroyers. Yet they are shot in thousands annually
and their bodies eaten ; or sold on the market for a
few pence or shillings.

The feathered enemies of the wire-worm are killed for sport.

There is another factor in this partial protection
of game birds. They are so terrorised by the sports-
man with his gun and dogs during the open season,
that they flee in wild alarm to haunts as remote from
man as they can find. The result is, large numbers
live and breed there, and the stock farmer loses their
services on his lands.

The young of altricial birds are helpless at birth,
and remain in the nest for a longer or shorter period,
according to the species. During this time, which,
in the majority of small birds, averages two weeks,
and in larger birds three weeks and longer, the parent
birds feed the helpless young. For a month after
leaving the nest the young birds have still to be

228

THE YOUNG BIRD

tended and fed by the parents while their muscles and
bones are strengthening and their feathers developing.
Meanwhile they practise the art of flying, and their
parents teach them how to seek their food.

The nestling birds are fed in various ways. Some
species of birds swallow the food and regurgitate it
from the crop or stomach into the throat of the young
bird. Other species, viz., many of the sea birds, the
doves, and the humming birds, employ this method
until the young are able to feed themselves. Others,
again, do so only when the nestlings are very young
and delicate. Some of the passerine birds feed their
young for a few days in this way, but they, with the
great majority of the others, thrust the food in its
natural state into the gaping mouths of their youngsters.
The diet is carefully chosen. The softest and tenderest
insect larvae are given to the very young nestlings.
The young of the smaller species of birds are fed
every few minutes during the greater portion of the
daylight hours. The food, as already mentioned, is
at first small and tender to suit the delicate stomachs
of the offspring. From day to day larger prey is
brought, and when too large the parents dismember
it with their bills.

The larger birds usually feed their nestlings at
much longer intervals, and often many hours pass
between each visit to the nest, but the young receive
a large bulk of food at a meal. The birds of prey
bring the food to the nest and proceed to tear it to
pieces. When a bit is torn off it is thrust into the
gaping mouth of the eager, squealing youngster.

229

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The young of the smaller birds, especially the
perching birds, eat great quantities of food, and their
rate of growth is correspondingly rapid. Visiting a
nest one day I found the young ones to be tiny, blind,
bare, and helpless little mites. Fourteen days later
I peeped into the nest, and away flew the brood in all
directions into the bushes. Applying the same rate
of growth to a human baby we would find that if it
were 7 lbs. in weight when born, it would be about
140 lbs. when twelve days old.

Wise Nature has provided against young birds being
overfed. The throat of the nestling is very sensitive,
and when the stomach is ready to receive more food,
the throat nerves will instantly respond with a simul-
taneous contraction of the gullet. If there is no
response, the parent bird withdraws the morsel and
thrusts it into the gaping mouth of another nestling.
In the human baby the gastric or stomach nerves are
so delicately adjusted that when too much food is
swallowed, or if the stomach is not in a fit condition
to digest it, a reflex motion is set up, and the contents
are cast out. Through constant overfeeding, the
human stomach soon loses its natural sensitiveness and
the surplus food, if digested, forms fat. If undigested
it generates various poisons, and slowly but surely
undermines the constitution and brings about a variety
of ills which cause premature death.

230

DEVOTION AND LANGUAGE

SANITATION

Some of the nestling birds in open nests, notably
the birds of prey, void their excrement over the edge
of the nest. With but few exceptions, the birds which
are included in the great order Passeres void their
excreta in the nest. It is, however, enclosed in a
membraneous sac, and is subsequently removed by the
parents. In these ways Nature guards against the
nests becoming insanitary. There are a few species
of birds, however, which utterly neglect nest sanitation.
The South African hoopoe is one, and the hornbill
is another.

DEVOTION AND LANGUAGE

The devotion of parent birds to their young is so
great that they will often take the most appalling
risks in their defence. I have, on more than one
occasion, seen parent birds of small species attack
and furiously peck the head of a boomslang (tree
snake) when it was in the act of devouring their
nestlings. Many and various are the ruses, strata-
gems, and methods adopted by birds in defence of
their young.

It pleases us to think we are the only species of
living creature on earth capable of speech. Animals,
too, have a language of their own. True, it is limited,
but nevertheless it is a form of speech. A low cry of

231

232

PLUMAGE

alarm by a partridge will send its brood instantly to
cover ; and they will remain as still as stones until
she tells them the coast is clear. When a hen catches
a worm she emits certain sounds, which, in our
language, could be interpreted " come quick, I have
food for you." Instantly the chicks eagerly flock
round her. Bird language is a most interesting
study. Space forbids enlarging upon it here.

FLIGHT

The young of the great majority of birds, on
leaving the nest, can only make short, clumsy flights ;
and it is at this time large numbers fall a ready prey to
enemies. The young swallow, on the contrary, on first
leaving the nest has full mastery of the air. The nest
is used as a roosting place, as a rule, until the young
birds are quite capable of taking care of themselves.
The young of the wandering albatross remains in
the nest for a year, and only vacates it when the parent
birds require the nest again. It has, even then, to
be actually forced to vacate its baby home to go forth
into the wide world alone.

PLUMAGE

The young of altricial birds are naked at birth
except for slight traces of filmy down on the back.
The feathers soon begin to grow, and when the young

Z33

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

bird leaves the nest its wings are usually sufficiently
developed to enable it to make short, uncertain flights.
All birds moult in the autumn. Moulting does not
take place until the breeding season is over. The
wing feathers of altricial birds are shed so gradually
that flight is not seriously interfered with. With
swimming birds, however, the reverse is the case.
They shed all their wing feathers at the same time and
become flightless. When the moulting season ap-
proaches they resort to secluded lagoons, lakes, rivers,
bays, etc., where they can live in comparative security
on the water while their new wing feathers are
growing.

When feathers are plucked out by accident, others
grow. When the wing or tail feathers are cut, the
bird does not get another set until the old ones are
shed at the usual moulting season. The male bird
is, as a general rule, more handsome than the female.
The painted snipe {Rostratula capensis) is one of the
exceptions. With some species of birds the plumage
is similar in both sexes. Climate affects the colour
of birds' plumage more or less profoundly. Many
species of birds are extensively distributed. A species
which inhabits the more or less arid portions of the
country will be noticed to be paler in colour than
examples of the same species inhabiting humid dis-
tricts. Several degrees of variation may often be
observed in birds of the same species. This has given
rise to subspecies. Sometimes the variation is slight,
and at other times it is very pronounced. The climate
and food supply affect the size of the bird, as well as

234

PLUMAGE

its feathers. Birds of the same species are often found
to differ in size in various parts of the country.
Climatic changes and food supply affect the bird so
greatly that it is sometimes a difficult matter to
determine whether it is a subspecies or a new species.

In course of time many subspecies become so
profoundly modified in appearance that they differ
from the type sufficiently to be designated a new
species. This gradual change may go on for many
thousands of years before very marked variations take
place in the plumage and body of the bird.

To secure a mate the male bird is obliged to court
the female. This courtship is more or less prolonged,
according to the species and the fastidiousness or other-
wise of the lady. Consequently the males have the
handsomer plumage, and they display it to the greatest
possible advantage before their lady love, who eventu-
ally selects the most virile and good-looking aspirant.
This is a provision of Nature to prevent deterioration
of the race. The female painted snipe is more
brightly coloured and larger than the male, and we
naturally seek for an explanation of this exception to
the general rule of the male bird being the hand-
somer. The probable explanation lies in the fact that
there are usually more females than males of this
species.

I collected these birds at various seasons of the
year in Natal, and the females always predominated.

3*35

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

THE FOOD SUPPLY

Many species of birds are compelled to migrate
to secure a sufficiency of food. If swallows, for
instance, were not migratory, only a comparative few
would find sufficient food to carry them through the
winter, even in temperate climates ; while in those
countries like the British Isles where the winters are
severe, the swallows would probably
become extinct. By migrating from
the northern hemisphere of the
earth to the south in the autumn,
migratory birds are perpetually in
spring and summer conditions ; and
at these times insect food is at its
maximum of abundance. This is a
wise provision of Nature. Even with
the present large number of migra-
tory birds, the insect hosts are able
to more or less hold their own.
a severe blizzard or other sudden weather
changes occur, great numbers of birds perish,
and there is a corresponding increase in the insect
world, and insect plagues are prevalent. Sometimes
a catastrophe overtakes the migrating hosts of birds.
They are occasionally caught in a wind storm of great
violence and driven out to sea to perish miserably;
or they may be struck down by hail and heavy rain.
Should this occur, insect pests increase alarmingly.
Insectivorous birds cannot be too abundant. If there

236

Suet hung by string
from branch. Suet
is an excellent
winter food.

Wh

en

1. Ray's Yellow Wagtail {Motacilla campestris) is a rare visitor to South

Africa. It migrates from Europe and wanders as far south as Port
Elizabeth.

2. African Pied Wagtail {Motacilla vidua) feeds largely on mosquitoes

and flies which it catches on the wing ; also young water snails
and allied forms of life.

237

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

is not a sufficient food supply numbers die off, and the
balance of Nature is restored. This is not so with
many of the seed-eating kinds. When the seeds of
grass and other wild plants and insects fail them, they
attack the farmers' grain crops, and their numbers have
to be reduced by human agency. Birds rarely store
food. They seek and consume what food is needful
for the day, and their movements are consequently
guided and determined by their food supply. When
insects are superabundant in any locality, the birds
soon become aware of the fact, and flock in from the
surrounding districts and prey upon the pests, leaving
only a few survivors lurking in hiding places.

Birds have a high bodily temperature, and to keep
it up a large amount of food is needful. When
deprived of food, a bird rapidly dies. Mammals,
with but few exceptions, can fast for a month and
more. It is a common practice for people to abstain
from all food for two weeks to a month for various
health reasons. Food is, therefore, an ever-present
necessity for the bird.

The jack hanger or fiskal shrike (Lanius collaris)
is one of the few exceptions amongst birds which
store food. When insects are abundant it catches
and impales them on thorns and barbed wire fences
for its future needs. I have frequently seen a large
assortment of beetles, locusts, and mice stored away
by a pair of fiskal shrikes, and have kept them in
aviaries to study their habits.

238

NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS

NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS

Like all other living creatures, birds have their
natural enemies. The natural enemies of bird life
sufficed, in the past, to maintain the balance between
bird and insect. However, that era is dead and gone.
Man has made his advent and has overspread the earth.
As the ages roll by his struggle for existence will
become increasingly keen, until every foot of arable
soil will be cultivated. The utilisation of the soil by
man for the production of food and timber has resulted
in an abnormal increase of insect life. Food of a rich
and succulent nature is provided by man for the
insect hosts, and he at the same time has consistently
and persistently persecuted the feathered enemies of
insects. The production of crops favours the rapid
multiplication of insect life. Consequently it is
necessary for us to take active measures to conserve
bird life. We must avail ourselves of every means of
increasing the numbers of insect-eating birds.

The destruction of some of the principal natural
enemies of birds is one of those ways. We no longer
require the services of these natural enemies of bird life.

With the advent of the agricultural and pastoral
phases of human culture, conditions have changed.
We are apt to regard all snakes, for instance, as enemies.
This is a grave error. The great majority of snakes
prey eagerly on rats. A number of species of snakes
in South Africa are non-venomous ; many others, al-
though more or less venomous, rarely inflict a poisonous

239

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

bite on man or beast for the good reasons that (i) they
are exceedingly timid and seldom attempt to bite ; and
(2) their venom fangs are set so far back in the jaw
that when they do bite with malicious intent, they
rarely succeed in driving their fangs home. This great
host of snakes preys on rats and mice. These rodents
are amongst man's worst enemies. They prey inces-
santly upon the products of his hands and his brain.
They rob him of a large percentage of his food.
They not only do this. They devour the eggs and
nestlings of birds, and attack and destroy adult birds
during the hours of darkness. In these ways they
largely contribute to the increase of noxious insect
life. There are, however, a few snakes in South
Africa which are inveterate enemies of bird life.
They are the mamba (Dendraspis angusticeps), egg-
eater (Dasypeltis scabrd), boomslang (Dispholidus
typus), and bird snake {Theltornis kirtlandii). The
egg-eater preys chiefly on the eggs and nestlings of
birds. The boomslang and bird snake feed not only
on the eggs and young, but on adult birds. In
addition, a favourite food of theirs is that most useful
of all lizards — the chameleon. This lizard feeds
exclusively on insects which it finds amidst the
foliage of trees and shrubs.

If these snakes confined themselves only to those
species of birds such as the weaver, bishop, and widow
birds, not much, if any, harm would be done ; but
they feed indiscriminately on all the smaller species
of birds.

The Nilotic monitor lizard (Varanus niloticus) robs
240

NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS

the nests of birds which build in the neighbourhood
of its watery haunts. This lizard is able to climb
trees with ease, and the destruction it causes in the
ranks of useful birds is not balanced by the harmful
insects it disposes of. In fact this monitor lizard
may be safely regarded as a reptile of little economic
value in South Africa. In Central Africa it performs
a useful service in reducing the crocodiles by feeding
on their eggs and young. It feeds largely on fresh-
water crabs, which are useful scavengers ; and also
on frogs (Rand) and toads (Bufo). Frogs and toads
are insect feeders, and therefore of considerable
economic value.

The various wild cats, genets, and muishonds prey
on birds to a more or less considerable extent, but
their depredations are mostly confined to ground
birds. As an offset against the harm they do to
bird life, they prey largely on rats and mice. The
mungoose and muishond render the highest services
to man in this way. I have ascertained, after many
years of close observation, that the chief diet of these
little carnivorous animals consists of rats and mice.

Squirrels destroy the eggs and young of birds to a
considerable extent in localities where these animals
are numerous. The Carolina squirrel {Sciurus caro-
linensis) was introduced into Cape Town many years
ago, and has multiplied so alarmingly that it is now a
serious menace to the fruit grower and to our native
birds.

The vervet monkeys, which dwell in the wooded
districts of South Africa, are unqualified enemies of

vol. i. ' 241 16

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

bird life. They eagerly seek out the nests of birds
which build in trees and devour their eggs and
nestlings.

The domestic cat has been, and is, very much over-
rated as a destroyer of rats and mice. The harm it
does to bird life in and about towns and villages and
around homesteads is immense. Well-fed cats usually
do not trouble to hunt down wild birds to any consider-
able degree, but the numbers of uncared for and semi-
wild domestic cats in and about cities, villages, farms,
and in the woods is much larger than is generally
believed. Cats at all times prefer birds to rats for
food. Cats which I have possessed at various times
developed into bird hunters, and after a time they
refused to eat rats and mice which were caught in
traps and given them.

The grounds of the Port Elizabeth Museum were
frequented by two or three dozen pairs of laughing
turtle doves, and a variety of other birds were to be
seen amidst the shrubs and flower beds at all times
of the day.

A vagabond cat appeared, and within three months
the birds had all been captured and eaten by it. This
cat refused poisoned bait of various tempting kinds,
and it was some considerable time before we were
able to encompass its death. It used to lie concealed,
and spring out upon the unsuspecting bird and strike
it down as it rose to fly.

Cats breed rapidly, and a few ownerless cats will
soon populate a locality and practically exterminate the
birds. Cats are tough and hardy, and their enemies

242

1. Cape Long- tailed Sugar Bird (Promerops cafer). Unlike most other

birds, it breeds in winter when the proteas and aloes are in bloom.
It lives on nectar and insects, and renders valuable service in the
cross-fertilisation of plants.

2. The Orange-breasted Sun Bird (Anthobaphes vio laced) is confined to

the Cape Province. Its favourite haunts are patches of heath
and proteas.

3. Greater Double-collared Sun Bird {Cinnyris afer) glitters with metallic

green and steel blue, and its breast is barred with bright yellow.

243

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

are few, consequently, unless kept severely in check
by man, they multiply alarmingly.

The greatest possible efforts should be made to
preserve bird life in cities, villages, and around our
homesteads in the suburbs and country, for two good
reasons : (i) We need the co-operation of every
insectivorous bird in keeping in check the insects
which ravage our gardens. (2) The aesthetic value of
birds in our neighbourhood is highly important in the
evolution of our higher brain centres.

" It's a good thing to scatter sunshine,
It's the best wav we know ;
It's a good thing to make hearts happy,
To bring gladness where we go."

WHAT THE DESTRUCTION OF
BIRDS MEANS TO YOU

1. Insect-borne diseases attack you, your wife, and
children. Results — financial losses, worry, anxiety,
damaged constitutions. Often death of beloved wife
or children.

2. Insect-borne diseases play havoc with your stock
and cause financial ruin, or a heavy annual drain upon
your resources.

3. Insects devour your pasturage, your standing
crops, your root crops, your timber trees, your fruit
and fruit trees, your dwellings, your carefully stored-up

244

WHAT DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS MEANS

foodstuffs, your furniture ; and, in fact, everything you
grow and the other goods you possess.

4. Insects prevent the colonisation of thousands
of square miles of land.

5. Insects make man's struggle for existence
80 per cent, heavier than it otherwise would be.

6. Insects, by bringing red ruin, vexations, and
troubles to farmers, cause every individual in the
country to suffer more or less indirectly.

The Swallows and Martins hawk the insects in the air.

7. Rats and mice, which owls and hawks prey on.
carry diseases to man and stock animals. They devour
everything eatable he produces. They gnaw and
destroy the work of his brain and hands.

8. Overcome the insect hosts and armies of rats
and mice, and you will have —

(i.) The reduction by two-thirds of diseases which
afflict man and beast.

(ii.) Health, wealth, happiness, and long life.

(iii.) Your country will be able to support many
times its present population.

(iv.) You will be able to thickly populate thousands
245

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of square miles of fertile territory which at present are
in the grip of insects.

HOW TO FIGHT AND CONQUER
THE ENEMY

I. Put birds under the protection of the law, and
at the same time create the necessary machinery for
the stern, unrelenting enforcement of those laws.

2. Suppress the catapult, and impose a heavy tax
on owners of air-guns and shot-guns.

3. Teach school children economic natural history,
and especially the value of birds to man.

4. Prohibit the exportation or importation of the
plumage of wild birds.

5. Station good energetic men with a thorough
training in economic entomology and the relation of
birds to insects all over the country to fight the insect
hosts and to give advice to the farmers. Money
spent in this way is money wisely spent. In South
Africa a hundred such men are required. The
resulting increased prosperity of farmers would add
largely to the Government revenue.

"To welcome new procedures is the test of greatness, for
it betokens breadth of view. Most men's knowledge is cut
on a bias of early acquisition, and cannot be adapted to new
habits of thought." — Lowell.

246

1. The Black Sun Bird {Cinnyris amethystinus) is dressed in velvety

black, with a glittering and shimmering amethyst patch on the
forehead and throat. (Male.)

2. Black Sun Bird. (Immature male.)

3. Mouse-coloured Sun Bird [Cinnyris verreauxi). The Sun Birds, or

Honeysuckers of every species, render great service to man. They
feed on insects, and are active agents in the cross-fertilisation of
plants.

247

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

INSECTS AND ALLIED FORMS OF
LIFE— BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS

So much has been written in this book about the
havoc wrought by insects and allied forms of life that
some knowledge in regard to them and their life
history may be us'eful. The great majority of insects
are pests, but, nevertheless, there are numbers of species
which are beneficial to man.

Butterflies and moths are grouped under the order
Lepidoptera, that is, the order of insects with scaly
wings. The butterfly differs in a number of ways
from the moth. The antennae or movable appendages
which stand out from the head are plain or feathered
in the moth; those of the butterfly are more or less
club shaped at the tips. The two pairs of wings in
the moth are fastened together by a beautiful little
arrangement of hook and eye, the hook on the inner
margin of one wing locking into the eye of the upper
wing. Butterflies lack this provision.

Butterflies fly by day; the great majority of the
moths fly by night and are attracted by light. When
at rest the wings are either wrapped round the body,
spread horizontally, or folded roof-like on the abdomen;
they are not held in a vertical position above the body.

The life history of these insects is marvellously
interesting, and is one of the most wonderful series
of events in Nature. The female moth or butterfly,
after mating, lays its precious eggs on trees, shrubs,
crops, or young growing plants of one sort or another.

2+8

INSECTS AND ALLIED FORMS OF LIFE

The eggs soon hatch with the warmth of the air and
sun, and tiny caterpillars appear. At first they are
so small it is with difficulty they can be distinguished
from the eggs. However, they soon wake up and
begin devouring the leaves and tender shoots of the
plant on which their parent has glued her eggs. Eggs
are not laid on plants at random. The parent knows
instinctively the species of plant her children will
thrive upon. In this selection she never makes a
mistake. The caterpillars feed heartily and grow
rapidly. The skin does not grow with the body, as
is the case with animals and birds ; it has to be shed
at frequent intervals. The old skin splits open at
the back of the head, and the caterpillar draws its body
through the rent. The most difficult part of the
process has yet to come. The caterpillar casts out the
lining of the food canal within its body. In fact, it
moults its skin inside and out. After this exhausting
effort it rests awhile to regain its old vigour and to
allow its jaws to harden. Then it again attacks the
vegetation, and eats voraciously until the next moulting
time. A caterpillar's life is made up of eating and
casting its skin. It moults from five to ten times,
according to the length of time it remains a caterpillar.
Some change into chrysalides in a month, while others
take longer. The caterpillar of the goat moth, for
instance, does not change into a chrysalis for three
years, and during its life it has made itself 72,000
times as heavy as when it emerged from the egg.
The privet moth caterpillar changes into a chrysalis
in twenty-two days, and during that short time its

249

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

weight is 11,312 times as great as when it was
born.

A caterpillar on an oak tree was kept under obser-
vation for fifty-two days, and during that period it
ate 120 oak leaves weighing three-quarters of a
pound.

We all know what a greedy feeder a silk-worm
is. It can be taken as an example of the eating powers
of other species of caterpillars. Is it, therefore, not
essential for us to carefully foster and care for all
enemies of caterpillars ? If, as an instance, a bird
had gobbled up the caterpillar referred to on the oak
tree, 120 oak leaves would have been saved. When the
caterpillar is full grown it ceases eating. If it is the
larva of a moth it will spin a cocoon of silk or make
a bag of some sort around itself, or else hide away
amidst decaying leaves or loose mould and change
into a chrysalis. If it is the larva of a butterfly it will
probably suspend itself from a twig or crawl into cover
and change into a chrysalis. The chrysalis of a
butterfly caterpillar is usually golden in colour, whereas
that of the moth is deep reddish-brown.

The caterpillar or larva has now turned into a
chrysalis or pupa. It lies sleeping in its case for
some days, weeks, or months, according to the species
of insect and the weather. Suddenly the chrysalis
opens, the top ring lifting off like a lid, and a moth
or butterfly crawls out. In the interval of sleep the
ugly caterpillar has changed into a lovely moth or
butterfly. The insect is now called an imago, and
is as big as it ever will be. At first it is weak and

250

1. The cock Malachite Sun Bird {Nectarinia famosa) has brilliant

metallic green plumage, and is one of Nature's most beautiful
living jewels.

2. Malachite Sun Bird (female), with plumage of a sombre hue.

3. Scarlet-chested Sun Bird {Cinnyris gutturalis). The beauty of the male

of this species transcends the imagination of num.

251

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

unsteady. Its wings are small and crumpled. The
juices from the insect's body flow into the veins of
the wings, and they expand and dry. Presently the
insect rises into the air and flies off — one of the loveliest
and most marvellous of Nature's creations.

Some species of butterflies and moths live only
two or three days, and do not eat at all. Others sip
nectar from flowers, the butterflies by day and the moths
by night, and live weeks and even months. After
mating, the females deposit their eggs in clusters on
twigs, leaves, bark, etc.; or on wool and fur in the
case of the clothes moth. These eggs hatch into
caterpillars, and so the life cycle goes on as before.

Butterflies and moths, in their quest for nectar,
carry pollen and fertilise plants, and in this way they
are beneficial. They, however, breed so rapidly that,
if left unchecked, their larvae,- which are called cater-
pillars would eat all the vegetation off the face of the
earth.

The cultivation of the ground by man provides
good, succulent, nutritious food for caterpillars, and
they, in consequence, tend to increase much more
rapidly than if they were obliged to support themselves
on wild plant food ; hence the necessity for taking
every possible measure to increase the number of
insectivorous birds and bats. Ichneumon flies are
very destructive to caterpillars. The fly punctures
the skin of a caterpillar and deposits an egg in each
puncture. These eggs hatch into grubs, which feed
on the body of their host, the caterpillar. The latter
usually does not die until it has changed into a chrys-

252

INSECTS AND ALLIED FORMS OF LIFE

alis. By this time the grubs have also become adult
and changed into chrysalides, and at the proper time,
instead of a beautiful moth or butterfly issuing from
the caterpillar chrysalis, a number of ichneumon flies
emerge. They fly away, mate, and the females seek
out fresh caterpillar victims.

Caterpillars evolve various schemes to protect
themselves against their bird enemies. They feed
on the under sides of leaves, hide by day and issue
forth by night ; bore into trees, manufacture a nasty
secretion which makes birds sick, and grow stiff hairs
on their bodies ; others imitate dry twigs, pretend to
be dead, or frighten their enemies by assuming
alarming attitudes.

Birds have their likes and dislikes. Some birde
feed on certain species of caterpillars which other
kinds of birds will not touch. For instance, the
cuckoos feed very largely on hairy caterpillars which
the majority of other birds will not eat.

Sometimes caterpillars multiply so alarmingly that
they swarm in uncountable multitudes and strip
forest, veld, and farms bare, leaving famine in their
wake. In 19 19 the army moth caterpillar stripped
the veld as bare as a road over wide stretches of country
in South Africa. The army moth flies by night, and
night jars and insectivorous bats are their chief
enemies ; yet little or nothing is done to protect these
night-flying birds and mammals.

Most species of moths die after one, or at most
two, batches of eggs have been laid ; but some kinds
hibernate during the winter. Eggs and chrysalides

153

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

also remain dormant throughout the winter months.
On the advent of warm weather the eggs hatch and
the chrysalides burst, and moths and butterflies emerge
to increase the race.

" Devoured by worms, like Herod, was the town,
Because, like Herod, it had ruthlessly
Slaughtered the innocents. From the trees spun down

The canker worms upon the passers-by,
Upon each woman's bonnet, shawl, and gown,

Who shook them off with just a little cry :
They were the terror of each favourite walk ;
The endless theme of all the village talk."

Longfellow.

BEETLES

Adult beetles and their larvae are almost if not quite
equal in their destructiveness to the caterpillars of
moths and butterflies. Hosts of species of beetles attack
and devour plant life. There are others, however,
which are known as carnivorous beetles. These feed
voraciously on insect life — largely on the beneficial ant.

Beetles are grouped under the order Coleoptera.
They possess a pair of horny wing-covers known as
elytra. They meet in a straight line down the back.
Beneath these hard and usually shiny wing-cases are
a single pair of transparent wings. The mouth parts
are adapted for biting.

The life history of a beetle is, first the egg, then
254

BEETLES

the grub, chrysalis, and adult beetle. The eggs are
laid in crevices in the bark of trees, in punctures made
by the insect, on twigs, in the ground, in balls of
dung, in seeds, grain and various other foodstuffs,
animal skins, and dry flesh.

The grubs of beetles differ from the caterpillars
of moths and butterflies, and are usually white or
coppery white. As soon as the grubs hatch from the
eggs they begin their career of destructiveness. Some
kinds bore into wood and feed on it. Great numbers
of species pass their lives underground, feeding on root
crops and the roots of all manner of plant and tree
growth.

One of the weevils lays its eggs in mealies, mealie
meal, and other grain. These eggs hatch into tiny,
yellowish-white grubs or maggots, which feed on the
grain and meal. When the grub is full grown it,
like the caterpillar, changes into a chrysalis, and in
due time emerges from its case a fully-developed adult
beetle.

Unlike butterflies and moths, adult beetles, with
the exception of the comparatively few predaceous
species, feed greedily on vegetation. For instance,
the Colorado or potato beetle is a much dreaded pest.
If not kept strictly in check, it increases so rapidly that
it eats off the potatoes to the last plant.

The damage done to man directly and indirectly
by beetles and their larvae is colossal. The grubs of
some of the wood-boring beetles live, in the grub
condition, in trees for several years before finally
changing into beetles. During all this period they

i :x

"\^j

^

IT I .

J

•

A Fiscal Shrike, or Butcher Bird (Lanius collaris), in the act of killing
a Cape Dormouse {Graphiurus muri?ius).

The Dormouse preys on the young and eggs of birds.

This familiar shrike, which is much persecuted by boys, eats various species
of hairy caterpillars which no other species of bird will touch.

256

BEETLES

are tunnelling through the living wood, and slowly
but surely destroying the health and life of the tree.
The grubs or larvae of beetles are more formidable
enemies of man than the caterpillars of butterflies and
moths in one sense, and it is this. They, as a general
rule, live out of sight in the interior of the substance
they prey upon, or hide in the soil. Consequently
man cannot readily reach them with his artificial insect
exterminators, and their natural enemies, the birds,
find it difficult to get at them. Therefore those
comparatively few species of birds which seek out
and prey on the grubs of beetles should be afforded
a double measure of protection by man. Among the
predaceous beetles the lady-birds {Coccinellidte) and
their larvae do good service by feeding on aphides
and scale insects. Several other families of beetles and
their larvae feed on insects and allied forms of life,
notably the tiger beetles {Cicindelid<e\ ground beetles
(Carabid<e\ water beetles (Dytiscid*). The weevils,
of which there are a large number of genera, are the
most destructive of all the beetle tribe to vegetation
and foodstuffs. They attack and destroy all kinds of
plants in a variety of ways. The apple blossom weevil
devours the flower buds of apple trees wherever apple
trees are grown. Birds gather to feed on these
pernicious beetles, and man, concluding the birds are
the offenders, foolishly destroys his feathered friends.
Other species of weevils attack stored corn, rice,
wheat, etc. During the Anglo-Boer War some short-
sighted, greedy speculators in Maritzburg cornered
thousands of bags of mealies. When the price went
vol. i. 257 17

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

up as the result of this dishonest deal, those robbers of
the people's money got a most unpleasant surprise.
The entire stock of grain had been destroyed by
weevils.

Birds are Nature's principal enemies of beetles.

FLIES

Flies are distinguished from all other insects by
possessing only two wings. The second pair are
rudimentary, and are reduced to stalked knobs called
balancers.

The mouth parts are modified for sucking and
piercings

Their life history is the same as that of beetles and
butterflies, viz., the egg (ova), maggot (larva), chrysalis
(pupa), and adult fly (imago). A few species of flies
incubate the eggs within their bodies ; the majority
produce eggs.

With two or three exceptions, the flies of the order
Diptera are a terrible curse to man. The common
house fly (Musca domestica) is a world-wide pest.
It breeds chiefly in fresh stable manure (horse, mule,
and donkey manure). Failing this, it will breed in
human excrement, moist decaying garbage, etc. Its
whole life history from egg to mature fly averages
fourteen days. The eggs hatch a few hours after
being laid ; the maggots feed greedily for eight days

258

FLIES

and then change into chrysalides. After five days a
full-grown fly emerges from the chrysalis. A female
fly lays a batch of about 120 eggs, and often a second
lot before she dies. Flies, which are born in the
spring, will often survive until the cold of late autumn
kills them. Apart from being an intolerable nuisance
in houses and to stock animals, the house fly is an
agent in the spread of disease germs amongst men and
domestic animals. It carries the germs of diseases on
and in its body. It is one of the foulest of feeders.
Unfortunately for men, its digestive juices are not
sufficiently antiseptic to kill disease bacteria swallowed
with its food. They, consequently, pass out of it in
its excrement alive. Fly specks are the excrement of
flies, and they usually teem with living disease germs.
Wild birds feed eagerly on the fly in every phase of
its life history. Many species of birds devour the
maggots and chrysalides, while others take the adult
fly on the wing.

The maggots of the flies known as gall midges
(Cecidomyid<e) burrow into the tissues of plants and
give rise to galls.

The crane flies or daddy long-legs (Tipulid*)
are notorious pests. Their larvae or maggots, which
are known as leather jackets, prey upon the roots of
plants.

The female gadfly (Talamid^) sucks the blood of
horses and cattle, and in so doing carries disease from
one to another. The maggots live in damp earth,
and are preyed upon by partridges, thrushes, robin
chats, and other birds. The hairy, bee-like botflies

259

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

(Estrida) lay eggs on the hair of horses and other
large animals. These eggs are licked off and
swallowed by the animals, and the larvae which hatch
from them live as parasites in their hosts' stomachs.
The larvae are known as bots. The larvae of some
species live in the nasal and ear cavities of large
animals, and cause their victims acute distress.

The warble flies (Hypoderrnd) are another pest to
large animals. The female punctures the skin of her
host and lays an egg. A grub hatches from the egg
and passes its larval span of life beneath the skin of
the animal, living on the juices of its host all the time.
When adult it burrows out, drops to the ground, and
changes into a chrysalis. The grub of the botfly,
when adult, passes out of its host with the stallings,
and also changes into a chrysalis on the ground.
Partridges, guinea-fowls, starlings, and some other
species of birds break up the droppings of animals
and eat these grubs and any worms or other noxious
forms of life they might contain. By scattering the
excrement of animals they also render excellent service
by preventing other species of flies from breeding in
it ; and by exposing it to the drying heat of the
sun, any eggs of parasitic pests it might contain are
shrivelled up and destroyed.

The tse-tse flies of the genus Glossina inoculate
man with sleeping sickness, and domestic animals
with a disease known as nagana or tse-tse fly disease.
The maggots are produced alive, and are full-grown
when born. They are usually deposited in damp,
loose, loamy, leaf-strewn soil under bushes, where

260

Fiscal Shrike, or Butcher Bird (Lanius collaris), with nest and eggs.
This familiar shrike is of high economic value, notwithstanding
its occasional habit of killing small birds temptingly exposed
in rages. The author has tested it with the Mantis, or Hottentot
God, Lady-Bird Beetle, and other beneficial insects, and has
found it does not eat them.

261

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

they change into chrysalides, and eventually issue
forth winged flies to feed on the blood of man and
beast, and incidentally carry deadly infection to
them.

Here, again, the bird comes to the rescue. The
one all-important consideration of a bird is to find
enough food for itself and its young. Consequently
birds know exactly where to seek for their prey. The
naturalist and trained collector are mere tyros in
comparison. Thrushes, partridges, guinea-fowls, and
a number of other species of birds know when and
where the tse-tse flies produce and hide their young ;
and they assemble from all over the neighbourhood
to scratch them up and devour them. Man, in his
stupidity, greed, and selfishness, armed with gun and
dogs, drives forth the birds and shoots them down.
After learning that game birds, such as partridges,
pheasants, guinea-fowls, and some others, are saving
countless multitudes of men and animals from getting
infected with sleeping sickness and nagana, as well
as other diseases, would anyone calling himself a man
go deliberately forth to slay these allies of the human
race ? We think not.

While men in authority struggle one with another
for place and power, the people of the world go on
suffering from preventable diseases and preventable
poverty. When a war is on, money is raised and spent
as prodigally and recklessly as water ; but when men
of science ask for money to be spent on fighting the
many foes which incessantly attack the human race
and check its evolution and expansion, they are either

262

BEES, WASPS, HORNETS, ANTS, ETC.

ignored or money is doled out with a niggardly and
hesitating hand.

While ambitious men wrangle, scheme, and fight,
the race suffer and perish prematurely.

The various species of flies which check the
expansion of the human race are many, and space does
not permit of a fuller mention of them. It is sufficient
to say that birds prey incessantly upon them in all the
three phases of their development — maggot, chrysalis,
and adult fly.

BEES, WASPS, HORNETS, ICHNEU
MON FLIES, SAW FLIES, ANTS, ETC.

These insects are grouped under the order Hymen-
optera. They possess four membraneous wings, the
hind ones being smaller than the fore wings. Mouth
parts are formed for biting and sucking. The end
of the abdomen is usually provided in the female
with a sting, a piercer, or a saw. The life history is
the egg^ grub, chrysalis, and adult insect. Bees are
eminently useful in fertilising flowers. They feed on
nectar. The honey bee provides man with honey
and wax.

The typical wasps and hornets feed their grubs
on other forms of insect life. They build nests of
mud or papery material, or make burrows in the
earth. An egg is laid at the bottom of each cell,

263

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

and the mother wasp or hornet captures small cater-
pillars, various other larvae, and spiders. These she
paralyses with an injection of venom sufficient to
render them comatose for a prolonged period, but
insufficient to kill them outright. The cell is filled
up with the victims and then sealed. The grub
which hatches from the egg feeds on the food provided
until it is adult. It then goes through the usual
change, and emerges a winged wasp or hornet. The
parent knows instinctively the exact quantity of
food to provide for her larva to last it until it is fully
grown.

Hornets and wasps are generally claimed by ento-
mologists to be beneficial to man. This is only partly
so. A careful examination of the nests of the mason
wasp extending over a period of years has convinced
me the bulk of their victims are spiders. Spiders feed
on various insect pests, and render great service to man.
They capture large numbers of adult winged insects.
Each female of these victims of the spider would have
laid hundreds of eggs. Therefore one female adult
insect killed by a spider equals in economic importance
a hundred and sometimes a thousand larvas.

The solitary wasps, however, which make burrows
in the ground, prey largely on caterpillars and other
destructive larvas. The wood wasps and saw-flies
puncture plants with their ovipositors or saws, and
deposit their eggs in the holes thus made. The
grubs burrow into the tissues of the wood, and
feed on it.

Some grubs, notably those of the saw-fly, feed
264

WHITE ANTS

openly on leaves, or form galls on twigs and pass their
lives therein.

We know of no birds which prey on the typical
stinging wasps and hornets, but numbers of birds
feed on the destructive saw-flies. The woodpecker
digs the larvae out of their hiding places in the wood
with its sharp, hard bill.

Ichneumon flies render good service to man by
using caterpillars as hosts for their larvae.

Ants are highly valuable as insect destroyers.
Some species are a pest in dwellings, but, with very
few exceptions, ants are of considerable economic
value. Some kinds attack and destroy insect pests
on and in the ground, while others seek them in the
herbage and trees.

WHITE ANTS

The termites, or " white ants," as they are popularly
termed, are not ants at all. They are grouped
under a separate order, viz., Isoptera. Some species
build mounds and others live underground. They
feed on dead, dying, and diseased vegetation. Some
species attack and destroy living vegetation, such
as the roots of shrubs and young trees, and play havoc
with the woodwork of houses, timber, fencing poles,
stacks of hay, forage, etc. Their ravages in South
Africa constitute a severe handicap on the people.
Birds are the chief enemies of these destructive
265

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

pests. When the fertile winged males and females
issue forth to establish fresh colonies, the birds assemble
and feed greedily on them. After rain the worker
termites are usually active on top of their mounds,
adding to them. When thus exposed they are a ready
prey of birds. Our feathered friends of nearly every
species are incessantly hunting this pest in the air,
amidst dead and decaying leaves, on tree trunks,
behind loose bark, and its various other lurking
and feeding places. Among game birds, partridges,
guinea-fowls, and quails are immensely useful as
termite destrovers.

LOCUSTS

All the locusts (Locustida) are vegetable feeders.
There are a large number of species. Some kinds,
such as the migratory locust, often assemble in vast
swarms and strip the country of vegetation. Locusts
lay eggs in the ground. These hatch into small,
wingless locusts. They live on the ground and
develop wings when adult. In some species the
wings do not mature.

The Locustid<e include all the long-horned grass-
hoppers.

The short-horned grasshoppers (Acridid<e) are also
vegetable feeders, and both they and the locusts are
pests. Some species of tree grasshoppers attack and
destroy caterpillars, but the good they do in this

266

1. The Black-headed Bush Shrike {Telephonus senegalus) which helps to

police the veld and scrub.

2. Four-coloured Bush Shrike (Lanarius quadricolor) with cheeks and

throat of scarlet.

3. The Black and Crimson Shrike {Lanarius atrococcineus) inhabits the

bush country from the Orange and Vaal rivers to Angola, and
gives the insects of those territories a bad time.
They are conservators of the bush and scrub lands.

267

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

way is of little value. Hundreds of species of birds
feed upon locusts and grasshoppers, and if it were not
for our feathered allies these pests would make stock
rearing and agriculture impossible.

Guinea-fowls, partridges, and pheasants dig up
the locust eggs and feed on them.

TICKS

There are a large number of species of ticks (Acari).
They are parasitic on animals, and feed on their blood.
All ticks pass through the following stages : —

i. The egg.

2. The larva.

3. The nymph.

4. The adult.

The adult female, gorged with the blood of her
host, drops to the ground and, crawling into a tuft of
grass, a crevice, under leaves, etc., deposits a large
coherent mass of eggs, and soon afterwards dies. The
number of eggs laid by a single tick varies from about
2,000 to 18,000, according to the species. The larvae
have six legs. They crawl up the stems of grasses
and other plants and gather at the top in clusters, and
wait for an animal to brush past. They cling to the
hair of its legs and body, and fasten upon the skin
and feed. After distending themselves with blood,
they moult and change into nymphs with eight legs.

268

TICKS

The nymph, after feeding on the blood of the host
and increasing its size, moults its skin and appears
as a sexually mature tick. The female is fertilised by
the male while she is still small. She sucks the blood
of her host until she becomes greatly distended. She
then lets go her hold and falls to the ground and
proceeds to lay her eggs.

Ticks are the chief agents in spreading stock
diseases. If ticks were exterminated we should prac-
tically stamp out stock diseases. Apart from the
terrible losses of stock animals by infection spread
by ticks, these terrible pests cause severe irritation,
loss of blood, and consequent loss of condition in
animals.

Birds feed upon ticks in every phase of their life
history. Quails, larks, and other birds seek out the
clusters of eggs and devour them. Other species of
birds pluck ticks from their host or feed upon the
gorged females on the ground. Numbers of birds,
chiefly starlings, associate with cattle in order to secure
these blood and egg laden female ticks when they fall
from the cattle. A single female tick is indirectly
capable of infecting an entire district in a short time
with one of the many cattle plagues.

Every gorged female tick eaten by a bird is the
potential parent of from 2,000 to 18,000 ticks, each
individual of which may be capable of infecting a
stock animal with a highly virulent disease. It will
therefore be seen what an important part the bird
plays in stock rearing.

269

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

MOSQUITOES

Of the many insect pests which plague mankind,
the mosquito is by no means the least. The female
mosquito lays its eggs in water. Some species deposit
their eggs on the surface of the water in adherent
clusters, while others (anopheles) lay them singly.
Stagnant and sheltered pools, ponds, ditches, marshes,
and water in tubs, old tins, etc., are preferred, because
(i) any disturbance of the surface by wind, or motion
of the water in running, prevents the larvae from coming
to the surface to breathe ; (2) stagnant water contains
an abundant supply of the minute vegetable and
animal organisms on which the mosquito larvae feed.
They do not breed in brackish water. Each female
mosquito lays about 300 eggs at a sitting, and if it
survives its enemies it will lay several more batches
before the cold of winter kills it. A few hours after
being laid the eggs hatch. The larvae are small
blackish creatures, more or less similar in shape to a
caterpillar. They are obliged to come to the surface
of the water every few minutes to breathe. Advantage
is taken of this fact to cover the water with a thin film
of paraffin, which stops up the breathing tube of the
larva and kills it. After about ten days the larva or
wriggler changes into a pupa or chrysalis. If the
water remains at a suitable temperature, the pupa,
in about twenty hours, finally comes to the surface and
rests there, and from it a fully-developed mosquito
emerges and flies away. After feeding and mating,

270

MOSQUITOES

the female goes to the nearest collection of stagnant
water and lays her first batch of eggs. On the advent
of winter the great majority of mosquitoes die, but a
sufficient number to carry on the race survive in dark,
warm crevices, caves, cupboards, and other sheltered
places. The female mosquito possesses a most efficient
apparatus for piercing the skin of its host and drawing
out its blood, on which it lives. The instrument is a
pointed proboscis which serves the double purpose of
piercing the skin and sucking up the blood. When
this sharp instrument is thrust into the tissues of the
mosquito's victim, and a droplet of saliva is injected
into the bottom of the wound for the purpose of
causing the blood to flow more freely, it is the
irritation of this saliva which causes itching and
redness in the human subject.

In the male mosquito the proboscis is comparatively
short, and is not in other ways adapted for piercing
the skin of an animal or man. The males feed on the
juices of plants, as do the females when blood is un-
obtainable. They prefer blood, however, to any other
kind of food.

Apart from mosquitoes being an annoying, biting,
sleep-dispelling pest, they inoculate men, animals, and
birds with virulent diseases. The mosquito is the
agent which spreads malaria and yellow fever. The
female mosquito sucks the germ or parasite laden
blood of a sick man or beast. These disease-producing
parasites accumulate in the saliva of the mosquito,
and when it punctures the skin of its host, it injects a
droplet of this infected saliva. The parasites soon find

271

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

their way into the victim's blood, where they multiply
rapidly. The mosquitoes have many natural enemies.
The wrigglers are preyed on by small fish, the larvae of
dragon flies, water beetles, and other aquatic creatures.
Authorities on mosquitoes and mosquito-borne
diseases, in mentioning the natural enemies of mos-
quitoes, either omit to mention birds or speak of them
as being of no practical value as mosquito destroyers.
On the contrary, birds feed greedily on adult mosqui-
toes. All species of swallows, martins, and swifts
prey upon them on the wing when they begin to fly
at sundown. The night jar feeds upon them all
night. The warblers, of which there are a large
number of species, search them out in their lurking
places during daylight hours, and dispose of vast
numbers. Many species of fly-catchers join forces
with the swallows in capturing these pests on the
wing, and continue their onslaught until it is too
dark for them to see.

APHIDES, OR PLANT LICE

These small insects live on the juices of plants,
the skin of which they pierce preparatory to sucking
out the juices. They may be seen clustered on the
buds and tender shoots. Warblers and other small
birds feed freely on these pests. They also utilise
them as food for their nestlings.

272

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VOL. I.

273

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

One aphis can become the parent of billions
during her brief life of a summer season.

I have found thousands of plant lice in the stomachs
of warblers. When large animals trouble us we can
shoot or poison them, but we are practically powerless
against the insect hosts without the aid of our feathered
friends.

TERRITORIAL HABITS IN
BIRD LIFE

When we say a bird or animal is territorial in its
habits, it means it restricts its range to a certain area
or territory, and regards it as its own by right of
conquest in precisely the same way as the human
race has done from time immemorial.

Some species of animals and birds secure territory
and hold possession of it for the remainder of their
lives, or until driven out by stronger rivals. For
instance, a troop of chacma baboons will take possession
of a portion of a range of stony hills, a kloof, or
rugged isolated mountain, and regard it as their own.
A troop of vervet monkeys will do likewise with a
certain area of bushland. Birds, such for instance
as the well-known fiskal shrike or johnny hangman
and his wife, are strictly territorial, and remain so
during their lifetime, and will not tolerate rivals of
their own species on their hunting grounds.

274

TERRITORIAL HABITS IN BIRD LIFE

Other species of birds are territorial only during
the nesting season, and when the young have been
reared they associate in flocks with others of their
own, and even different, species. On the approach of

Gourds or Calabashes on poles, or tied to the branches
of trees, are suitable for nesting in. They are
waterproof and warm.

the next nesting season the sex instinct begins to
assert itself in the male bird first; he forthwith leaves
the flock, selects a suitable site, and with song and
the display of his newly acquired nuptial plumage,
seeks to attract a mate. Every hen bird he sees is
courted, until eventually one favours him, and the

275

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

nest building proceeds. With others, the sexes pair
off before the flock disperses, and they at once seek
out a suitable locality for rearing their family. The
factors which dominate the birds are : —

i. A favourable aspect for the nest.

2. An adequate food supply.

3. A site as free as possible from enemies.

Often several pairs of birds build their nests in
the same locality; others in colonies. When this
occurs the birds know beforehand that the immediate
neighbourhood contains ample food for the young of
them all.

The wattled starling, for instance, discovers
where a swarm of migratory locusts have laid their
eggs, and they also know when those eggs will hatch.
The birds forthwith build hundreds of nests in the
immediate neighbourhood, and when their eggs have
hatched there is an abundance of food for the nestlings
and parents in the shape of young locusts. In this
way Nature provides food for the young birds, and at
the same time seeks to prevent the locusts increasing
unduly in numbers. Unfortunately, although these
immensely valuable birds are protected by law, their
nests are so accessible that Kafirs and others of
nondescript breeds collect the fat nestlings in thou-
sands for food. I have seen white men and their
sons deliberately shoot into flocks of these valu-
able allies of ours and kill and wound hundreds
of them.

The territorial habit is determined mainly by the
276

1. Lesser Puff-back, or Snowball Shrike {Dryoscopus cub/a), so-called

because the male puffs out a mass of snowy white feathers from
the lower part of his back.

2. Greater Puff-back Shrike, or Bonte Canaribyter {Dryoscopus ferrugtneus),

which creeps through the tangled scrub. These shrikes prev upon
insect life amidst the foliage of trees and on the ground.
277

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

food supply in any given area. It is a matter of the
survival of the fittest. The size of the territory is in
relation to the quantity of food required for the
sustenance of a pair of birds and their young. A
pair of fiskal shrikes will often be content to own
one small garden plot, finding in it ample insect life
for their needs.

Out in the arid veld in drought-stricken districts
there is often only one pair of birds inhabiting a
comparatively large territory. In a certain dry district
I noticed there was one pair of fiskal shrikes to about
ten morgen of land.

Often, owing to a scarcity of nesting sites, birds
are forced to congregate in numbers in small areas.
In these instances long journeys for food are often
necessary. Others are naturally sociable in their
habits, and build their nests in proximity to one
another for preference.

It has been asserted that the brilliant plumage of
many male birds of territorial habits, such, for instance,
as the sun birds, are warning colours, viz., so that,
perched on a bush, the owner of the territory will be
conspicuous to all and sundry who may have any
inclination to intrude. The weakness of this theory,
however, is that there are as many species of birds of
beautiful plumage which are not territorial as there are
of those which have this habit. Birds, the males of
which take on beautiful plumage only on the approach
of the nesting season, will be found to be the species
which are polygamous, or which have a different mate
each season. There is, consequently, a definite object

278

PROTECTION OF CROPS AND FRUIT

in the male bird being as beautiful as Nature can make
him. Nature's aim is to carry on the species, and at
the same time eliminate the unfit.

PROTECTION OF CROPS AND FRUIT
WITHOUT DESTROYING BIRDS

Our energies should be directed to the prevention
of unnecessary destruction of bird life. The reduction
of birds by man is prompted by various motives and
desires : —

i. Sport.

2. Food.

3. Insufficient knowledge in regard to their place
in the scheme of Nature.

4. Mistaken beliefs in regard to their habits.

5. Brutal and ignorant lust for killing defenceless
creatures.

6. The demand by women for plumage.

7. The craze for making collections of skins or

eggs-
Many species of birds do considerable harm to the
products of man's toil and industry under certain
circumstances and conditions ; but from long experi-
ence in various countries it is now established that
birds should only be killed as a last resort, as, for
instance, when the seed-eating species, known as

279

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"vinks," attack the ripening grain in vast flocks. It
must never be forgotten that, with very few exceptions,
seed-eating birds prey largely on insect life and feed
their young on it, consequently it will usually prove
more economical for us to take intelligent measures to
protect our newly-sown seed and our ripening crops
other than by the old method of destroying the birds.
If you grudge your bird labourer his hire, or if you

think he takes too large
a wage for the services
he renders, then outwit
and scare him off when
he comes for his pay,
and only take extreme
measures as a final resort.
To prevent birds
eating the newly-sown
seed in gardens, dress it
with red lead. Place the
seeds in an earthenware
basin and cover them
with water, stir well, and drain off the water. Then put
powdered red lead in a tin sprinkler, such as an old
Keating's insect powder tin, and thoroughly dust the
wet seeds with the red lead, and stir and turn the seeds
vigorously. Sow the seeds as soon as dry. The red
lead method is useful for any kind of smooth-skinned
seed which is not too small. Sprinkling seed with
paraffin is another method often used. When the
plants appear above ground, black threads may be
stretched lattice fashion on pegs 6 inches high across

280

A Leaf blighted by small caterpillars.

SCARECROWS AND VARIOUS DEVICES

or along the rows and beds. Small mesh netting
is better.

Birds often attack buds and seedlings because of a
scarcity of water. See that water is available for their
use in your garden. With a little time and patience,
netting can be made in the home. A Kafir will soon
learn how to make it. The netting should be oiled
with castor oil to preserve it. If oiled properly it will
last for years.

When your plants are in the seedling stage they
may be saved from attack by exposing food for the
birds in suitable places. Seed-eating birds are very
fond of finely-crushed mealies, Kafir corn, or coarse
mealie meal, and this provender, surely, is cheap
enough. The object to attain is to encourage the birds
to remain in your garden at the minimum cost to
yourself, for when your plants begin growing vigor-
ously, you will need the assistance of your feathered
allies against insect enemies.

SCARECROWS AND VARIOUS
DEVICES

The human scarecrow is usually a failure. To
make it a success it must be properly made and moved
to a fresh position after dark, so as to occupy a different
spot and attitude each day. Bits of string, tin, or
mirror hung around it are useful.

To scare small birds the figure of a flying hawk
281

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

cut out of soft wood or light metal is effective. By
a string and ring it can be suspended from a thin wire
stretched horizontally across the seed beds, so that
the breeze will make it move. To be of any lasting
service its position on the cross-line must be changed
every two or three days. A good scarecrow can be
made in the form of a revolving windmill, so balanced
that it will move with the slightest breeze. At one
end about six vanes can be fitted, painted shiny red
and white. In the board at the other end, fit a small
piece of common mirror glass. Fix this windmill
on a pole a few feet above ground. When the wind-
mill revolves, the mirror flashes bright beams in all
directions over the beds, much to the terror of the
birds. A petrol or paraffin tin containing a few
smaller tins or pebbles may be hung in a tree and a
long cord attached. The other end of the cord, when
jerked, will cause the tin to rattle alarmingly.

To scare birds from orchards, firing blank charges
at stated periods is sometimes employed, but this is
rather expensive." What is known as an automatic
clock gun has been invented and placed on the
market by Mr John Hall, Station Road, Wigton,
Cumberland, England. It is made to hang from a
tree or to stand on the ground, and automatically
fires off a noisy blank cartridge, firing at regulated
intervals and working as regularly as a clock. It
only requires a couple of minutes to recharge and shift
its position each day. This does away with the
expense of a human shooter. It is essential that its
position be changed each day. This clock gun is

282

SCARECROWS AND VARIOUS DEVICES

also highly effective in scaring birds from grain crops
at the time when they take a heavy toll of the ripening

grain.

Writing of a substance called " corvusine " in
Farm, Garden, and Birds, issued by the Royal Society
for the Protection of Birds, 23 St Anne's Gate, London,
Mr E. Purcell Jones, in an able essay, says: —

" I have left until the last that form of protector
(note the exact term) which I consider is of untold
value to the farmer. I speak of a proprietary article
which has been placed on the market under the title
of ' corvusine ' (the manufacturer of this is Mr A. E.
Hawker, 59 Mark Lane, London, E.C.). ^ On the
Duke of Westminster's estate here in Cheshire it has
been tested with the very best results. It is a combina-
tion of sundry chemicals with a harmless tarry basis,
and it is used to dress the seeds before sowing. It is
absolutely non-injurious to the seeds ; indeed, greatly
helpful, inasmuch as it effectually kills such diseases
as the smut of wheat. The various soil pests give it
a wide berth— to birds it is anathema. The makers
of this article claim that its use costs about 6d. per acre,
and I know that farmers whose seeds suffer from birds
will find it the most productive 6d. per acre they ever
spent. Now, while it is of no service in protecting
the grain when it is ripe, it possesses, while the crop
is growing, this immense advantage as a protector
over the mechanical scarer — it prevents the birds
feeding on your seeds, but it does not altogether drive
them off the land, so by its means you get the inestim-
able services of the scavengers without having to pay

283

1. Grey Cuckoo Shrike {Graucalus casius), or Blaauw Katakure, of the

forests and bush-veld on the eastern side of South Africa.

2. Black Cuckoo Shrike (Campophaga nigra). These Cuckoo Shrikes

are inveterate enemies of insect life in the forests and bush- veld.

3. Southern Grey-headed Bush Shrike {Lanarius starki). This shrike,

in addition to insects, adds young snakes and mice to its diet.
284

SCARECROWS AND VARIOUS DEVICES

any wages. Have you seen a fine turnip swarming
with turnip caterpillars ? You know well enough the
ravages of wire-worms, leather jackets, and the rest ?
You must have the services of the birds to keep down
these pests. I have proved over and over again that
starlings and other birds eat them in enormous
numbers, and it is now possible to allow such valuable
service to 20 on unrestricted and at the same time rest
assured that your own seeds are safe. Similar good
results are obtained by the use of ' Clark's wheat
protector ' (the maker of this is Mr G. B. Clark,
Woburn Sands, Beds., England), which is a carbolised,
instead of a tarry, preparation; this will dress some-
thing like a bushel of seed at a cost of a modest
penny."

In South Africa, where native umfaan labour is so
cheap, it pays to keep boys to patrol the orchards and
fields with empty tins at the times when the crops are
liable to be attacked by birds.

Spraying budding fruit trees with nicotine emulsion
has good results. It is very lasting, and one spraying
is usually sufficient to protect the buds until they
burst, when they are then safe. If much rain has
fallen, a second application will be needed. Birds
abominate the bitter taste of nicotine. This method
has been practised with great success in England by
fruit farmers against the bud-eating sparrow and
bullfinch.

A simple device to scare birds is mentioned by
Mr E. J. Piatt in Farm, Garden, and Birds. He
says : —

285

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

" When a large area is sown down, and netting
is impossible, I have found a very simple method
most useful. Stretch lines of string about 15 feet
apart over the whole area, on stout stakes about 6 feet
high; from these lines at intervals of 15 feet suspend
a medium-size potato 4 feet from the ground, liberally
furnished with wing feathers of fowls or other such
feathers ; the slightest breeze sets the potato in motion,
and proves a most effective deterrent. The preparation
of a seed bed with a fine tilth is a great aid. The seed
can then be well covered, and is not so easily found by
the birds."

SUMMARY

The most efficient and cheapest way to protect
large areas has been found to be the live scarecrow,
in the shape of a boy with a pair of clappers or an
empty petrol tin and a drum stick. He should be
the possessor of a strong voice, and ought to carry a
rattle or " bull roarer " to use at intervals. A " bull
roarer " is a small, flat, oblong piece of wood, to which
is attached a stout cord about 3 feet long. The
boy whirls this rapidly in the air. When properly
manipulated it makes a roaring noise terrifying to
birds. The best plan is for the boy to sleep in a hut
in the centre of the orchard or field, and to begin his
demonstrations before the early bird arrives. The
boy should have an assistant in the form of a terrier

286

SUMMARY

dog with him. A wind-driven scaremill or crawmill
has given good results. It also serves the purpose of
scaring hares and bucks off the crops at night.

Empty tins and shiny pieces of glass hung in
bunches from horizontal wires or from poles are
good.

Mr Turnbull, in support of the windmill, writes: —

" Being a market gardener, I have tried many
ways of protecting my crops, and find the most effective
and economical is by means of a simple windmill,
with a few links of chain securely attached to the
spindle and an old tin shovel fastened above, so that
every time the sails fly round, the chain whacks the
shovel and makes the terrified birds fly in all directions.
Any handy man can make one in half an hour. Any
other thing the birds get used to. If a windmill were
going constantly the birds would take no notice of it ;
but in this case sometimes all is still, then a little wind
springs up and the sails fly round, the chain batters
the shovel, and off the birds go. I have found it most
effective and cheap, and have never had occasion to
shoot a bird for many years."

Flying a hawk-shaped kite at intervals over the
crops often proves very helpful. Most birds have a
great dislike for glass bottles placed on or hung from
sticks about 3 feet high. These could be put at
intervals among the crops and shifted every day or
two. Coloured rag streamers, preferably red, at the
end of high poles are often employed as scarecrows.

Wrapping black and white cotton, intermixed,
round fruit trees and bushes is a good deterrent.

287

NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Birds, in avoiding the white cotton, fly against the
black and get such a scare that they do not return.
Muslin bags for choice fruits, such as figs and peaches,
may be used. A friend has 300 small tobacco bags,
and these are placed on the figs when they begin to
swell. Every morning he, or a native, goes round the
trees, removes the ripe figs, and replaces the bags on
other figs. In this way he loses very few figs.

Fruit growers should plant sunflowers, millet,
wheat, etc., in the vicinity of their orchards to provide
food for birds. Many species of seed-eating birds
only attack fruit when driven to do so by desperate
hunger and thirst. If cheap food and water are

provided, the fruit will be saved.

Ploughing up and harrowing land near an orchard

will often keep numbers of birds from eating fruit.

The turned-up soil will provide insects and seeds to

satisfy the needs of the birds.

Fruit-eating birds are very fond of mulberries.

These trees flourish in most fruit-growing districts.

A few such trees may be planted in and about the

orchard to provide food for birds. When mulberries

are available, the birds will not touch other fruit.

Various hardy berry-bearing trees and shrubs may

also be planted with advantage.

Printed in Great Britain at The Dariex Press, Edinburgh

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